Myanmar’s ongoing election process is a “facade” designed to entrench military rule rather than reflect the will of the people, according to a United Nations-appointed human rights expert, who has urged the international community to reject the vote and increase pressure on the ruling junta.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Tom Andrews, the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said the first phase of voting held on December 28 exposed what he described as a junta-orchestrated exercise lacking any democratic credibility. He warned that the polls were being staged to manufacture legitimacy for the military nearly five years after it seized power in a coup.
“By all measures, this is not a free, fair nor legitimate election,” Andrews said, adding that the process amounted to a theatrical performance aimed at misleading the international community. He called on UN member states to isolate Myanmar’s military leadership and push for the cancellation of the remaining phases of voting.
Myanmar’s military authorities have planned the staggered election amid ongoing civil war that erupted after the February 2021 coup. The conflict has pitted the armed forces against multiple ethnic armed organisations and resistance groups, triggering widespread displacement, economic collapse and a deepening humanitarian crisis, worsened further by powerful earthquakes earlier in 2025.
Two more rounds of voting are scheduled for January 11 and January 25, although the junta has already acknowledged that polls will not be held in at least 65 townships and thousands of wards and village tracts, highlighting its limited control over large parts of the country.
Andrews cited reports of very low voter turnout in the first phase, despite alleged intimidation and threats. He said young people were pressured to vote through the threat of conscription, while displaced persons, students, civil servants and prisoners were reportedly coerced with warnings that access to aid, education or essential documents could be denied if they did not participate.
Myanmar’s main opposition force, the National League for Democracy, which won landslide victories in the 2015 and 2020 elections, has been barred from contesting after being dissolved by the military. Its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has remained in detention since the coup, with little public information about her current condition.
