The 2012 Myanmar by-elections were held on 1 April 2012. The elections were held to fill 48 vacant parliamentary seats. Three of those remained vacant as polling in three Kachin constituencies was postponed. There was no plan to fill the additional five seats cancelled in the 2010 election and one seat vacated after the death of a RNDP member.

The main opposition party National League for Democracy was re-registered for the by-elections on 13 December 2011 as part of the reforms in Burma since 2010. It won in 43 of the 44 seats they contested (out of 45 available). Its leader Aung San Suu Kyi ran for the seat of Kawhmu, and won.

In February 2012, President Thein Sein remarked that the government would "seriously consider" allowing Southeast Asian observers from the Association of South East Asian Nations to observe the election. The Burmese government confirmed that it had requested for ASEAN election observers to arrive on 28 March, five days before the election. Canada, United States, European Union, China, and North Korea, as well as ASEAN dialogue partners (India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and Australia), were also invited to observe the election, although it remained unclear the degree of access these international observers were to have. The United States sent two election observers and three journalists.

On 13 March 2012, the Union Election Commission approved political party monitors to monitor polling stations during the election. In the previous election, only Union Solidarity and Development Party monitors had been allowed to observe the elections and ballot counts. A civilian-led monitoring group, including members of the 88 Generation Students Group, also scrutinised election irregularities.

On 28 March 2012, Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade sent a delegation consisting of Senator Consiglio Di Nino and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Deepak Obhrai.

Aung Din of the US Campaign for Burma said that the Burmese government was exploiting the elections to have international economic sanctions lifted as quickly as possible, since a free and transparent election had been one of the conditions set by the European Union and American governments. Moreover, the National League for Democracy has pointed out irregularities in voter lists and rule violations by local election committees. On 21 March 2012, Aung San Suu Kyi was quoted as saying "Fraud and rule violations are continuing and we can even say they are increasing."

With regard to the invitations of international election observers, a US State Department spokesperson said that the Burmese government fell short of expectations to accommodate observers during the entirety of the campaign season (as typically done), which is nearing the end, as a select number of observers were allowed only to observe the election:

"...it does fall short of international complete transparency on an election, and we hope they’ll continue to keep the system open, and open it further... A full-scale international observation effort would typically include quite a bit of pre-Election Day observation, systematic coverage on Election Day, post-election follow-up, and professional monitors from non-governmental organisations."