GENEVA - UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, today urged the international community to unequivocally reject the country's sham election, redouble efforts to isolate the junta and pressure junta leaders to call off the election after the first round of voting laid bare the coercion, violence and exclusion underpinning the polls.
"The results of the first round of voting in what the military junta of Myanmar claims is a legitimate 'election' are in and they are conclusive," Andrews said.
"By all measures, this is not a free, fair nor legitimate election. It is a theatrical performance that has exerted enormous pressure on the people of Myanmar to participate in what has been designed to dupe the international community," he said.
Voter turnout in the first round of the election held on 28 December was reportedly very low, despite junta coercion and the pervasive fear of retaliation. The National League for Democracy, which won landslide victories in general elections held in 2015 and 2020, did not appear on the ballot after it was dissolved by the junta. Its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been detained by the junta since the coup, and her whereabouts and condition remain unknown. According to official results, the junta's proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, won nearly 90 per cent of contested seats in the lower house of Parliament. Two further rounds of voting are scheduled for 11 and 25 January. The junta has already ruled out holding polls in 65 townships and thousands of wards and village tracts, reflecting the military's lack of control over large parts of the country.
Junta officials have reportedly pressured displaced people, students, civil servants, prisoners and ordinary citizens to participate in the polls by threatening to withhold access to humanitarian aid, education, immigration documents and other government services.
"Junta forces have used the threat of conscription to compel young people to vote. This is not political participation; it is coercion," the expert said.
"You cannot have a free, fair or credible election when thousands of political prisoners are behind bars, credible opposition parties have been dissolved, journalists are muzzled, and fundamental freedoms are crushed," he said. "The junta has spent nearly five years dismantling the basic foundations of democratic participation and now wants the world to accept an empty parody of an election."
According to State media, the junta has filed charges against more than 200 people under a draconian election law that criminalises criticising or protesting the junta's sham polls. Those convicted under the law have reportedly received sentences of up to 49 years' imprisonment. Andrews said he was alarmed by mounting evidence that junta forces have used threats and coercion to drive people to the polls.
"It should surprise no one that the military-backed party has claimed a landslide victory in the first round of the election," the Special Rapporteur said. "The junta engineered the polls to ensure victory for its proxy, entrench military domination in Myanmar, and manufacture a façade of legitimacy while violence and repression continue unabated."
Following reports that resistance groups attacked a convoy of junta appointed election officials in Magwe Region, resulting in multiple fatalities, the Special Rapporteur also urged all armed actors to refrain from targeting civilian officials and any actions that could further endanger civilians. "Attacks against civilians, by any combatants, are illegal and unacceptable", he said.
The expert commended Governments that have already signaled their rejection of the election, and raised concerns about the small group of countries that sent observers to monitor the first round of voting, thereby legitimising the farcical election. "Governments that support democracy and human rights should take a strong, principled, public position for the people of Myanmar who deserve to have a genuine election that reflects their preferences and hopes for the future. This farcical exercise is anything but," he said.
"The international community should make clear that Myanmar's future belongs to its people, not to those who imprison, silence and terrorise them," Andrews said.
