Southeast Asia’s ASEAN bloc will not send observers to Myanmar’s elections in December, diplomatic sources said Monday — a setback to the junta’s push for international legitimacy.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has billed the December 28 polls as a step towards reconciliation in the civil war unleashed by his 2021 coup.
ASEAN chair Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim on Monday repeated calls for an ‘immediate ceasefire’.
Leaders of the 11-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, meeting in Malaysia, voiced ‘deep concern’ over the conflict and warned of ‘a lack of substantive progress’ towards peace, in a statement released late Sunday.
‘The cessation of violence and inclusive political dialogue must precede elections,’ it added, noting the junta’s invitation for ASEAN states to send observers.
‘What it means is that there are no ASEAN observers, but ASEAN countries are free to send observers on a bilateral basis,’ one diplomat said.
A second diplomat confirmed there was no consensus among members to deploy a mission under ASEAN’s banner.
Not sending ASEAN observers ‘will certainly be a blow to Myanmar’s legitimacy aspirations’, said Mustafa Izzuddin, an international affairs analyst with consultancy Solaris Strategies Singapore.
‘There will be no credible evidence to suggest that free and fair elections were held.’
Human Rights Watch has condemned the vote as a ‘sham’, while Amnesty International accused the junta of ‘repressive tactics’ and ‘and arresting anyone critical of the poll’.
Voting will not take place across large swathes of the country controlled by pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armies fighting the military regime.
European Union commissioner Kajsa Ollongren has also ruled out sending observers, calling the planned elections neither free nor fair.
‘Based on these criteria, we will not send observers to something that we don’t recognise as an election,’ she said.
Myanmar remains a member of ASEAN but its junta leaders have been barred from the bloc’s meetings since the coup.
Other members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with newest member East Timor joining Sunday.
UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews had earlier urged ASEAN not to ‘legitimise the junta’s charade’ by sending monitors, warning that to recognise the ‘fraudulent election would be to move Myanmar backward and defend the indefensible.’
