(New York) – Governments attending upcoming regional summits in Malaysia should reject the Myanmar military junta’s plans to hold “elections” in December 2025, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to all countries sending delegates. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and ASEAN partner summits will take place in Kuala Lumpur on October 26-28, with the Myanmar crisis on the agenda.
The Myanmar junta has continued its repression of pro-democracy forces, carried out arbitrary arrests, torture, and abusive conscription, and increased military attacks on civilians. The junta has intensified its crackdown ahead of the planned elections, which the authorities scheduled to begin December 28. ASEAN members and partner countries should strengthen efforts to address Myanmar’s human rights and humanitarian crisis and the plight of millions of its people displaced since the February 2021 military coup.
“Myanmar’s junta has demonstrated neither the intention nor the capacity to organize and hold elections that would even remotely meet international standards,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The junta’s repression and unlawful attacks have created a climate of fear in which no genuine polls can take place, let alone voting that will be free and fair.”
The military’s widespread atrocities in recent years have included crimes against humanity and war crimes, arbitrary detention of opposition politicians, and the dissolution and criminalization of opposition political parties. On July 30, the junta issued a draconian law that criminalizes criticism of the election by prohibiting speaking, organizing, or protesting that “disrupt[s] any part of the electoral process.”
Since large parts of Myanmar are not under military control but instead held by opposition armed groups, the junta would not be able to hold polls in most of the country’s townships.
Senior United Nations officials, international election monitoring groups, and several foreign governments have issued warnings about the planned elections. The UN secretary-general’s special envoy for Myanmar, Julie Bishop, said: “There is a significant risk that the election planned for December, under current circumstances, will increase resistance, protest, and violence and further undermine the fragile state of the country.”
Several former ASEAN foreign ministers issued a joint statement on October 11 calling on ASEAN to “unequivocally reject” the planned “sham election” and initiate a “complete strategic reset on Myanmar.”
“ASEAN and ASEAN partners should categorically reject the idea that free and fair elections can currently be held in Myanmar and refuse to support the elections in any way,” Sifton said. “Other governments should also signal that if elections are held, any supposed results will not be considered credible.”