The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights released a strongly worded statement on 26 October warning of the real dangers posed by the legitimization of the Myanmar junta’s upcoming election by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The text of the statement is as follows.
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) calls out the recent public statement of ASEAN leaders suggesting that the bloc may consider sending observers to Myanmar junta’s year-end polls while insisting that the elections “cannot be stopped by any party.”
Such remarks risk lending credibility to a process that the Myanmar military has made clear cannot be held across the country, and which is taking place against a backdrop of sustained political repression, broad censorship, mass arbitrary detention and continuing violence that has driven millions from their homes.
APHR vehemently rejects any step by ASEAN that would normalize or legitimize an electoral exercise carried out by a regime that has systematically undermined the conditions for free and fair participation.
The network of Southeast Asian lawmakers has worked with regional and international allies to insist that international recognition, technical assistance, or observation of any electoral process in Myanmar can only be considered after independent, verifiable benchmarks are met, including cessation of widespread violence, the unconditional release of political prisoners and demonstrable ability for all citizens to participate.
In fact, in early October 2025 APHR enjoined Members of the European Parliament in amplifying the rejection of the junta’s sham elections and to place the Rohingya and other humanitarian crises at the top of the 47th ASEAN summit agenda.
These interventions reflect a sustained and public record of concern and specific demands from APHR and allies.
APHR believes that the people of Myanmar deserve more than performative diplomacy.
Endorsing or observing an election that excludes large parts of the population and staged amid ongoing hostilities perpetrated by human rights violators, would amount to complicity in their marginalization and further subjugation.
Mizzima