APHR to Myanmar Junta: No Electoral Legitimacy Without Democracy

JAKARTA, 28 December 2025—ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) unequivocally denounces the Myanmar junta’s sham elections. This farce is nothing more than a cynical ploy to legitimize the junta’s iron-fisted rule, almost five years after its coup d’état that plunged Myanmar into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Since seizing power, the junta—led by Min Aung Hlaing—has unleashed unprecedented violence and impunity against the Myanmar people. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), over 7,000 civilians were killed, including more than 900 children. More than 25,000 remain arbitrarily detained, with countless subjected to torture and extrajudicial killings. The junta have displaced over 3.5 million people internally, and driven over 1.5 million refugees across borders.

Ongoing violence continues unabated, with attacks on healthcare facilities, airstrikes, and village burnings documented across conflict zones. The junta lifted its nationwide state of emergency in July 2025 but immediately imposed martial law in 63 townships across Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Sagaing, Magway, Mandalay, Rakhine, and Shan, transferring all administrative and judicial powers to military commanders and enabling further atrocities.

“The junta’s abuse of and hunger for power must be stopped,” said Mercy Chriestry Barends, APHR Chairperson and Member of Parliament in Indonesia. “This sham election will only entrench military rule and deepen the suffering the people of Myanmar are already enduring.”

Compounding this illegitimacy, the junta has brazenly excluded over 56 townships from polling process, including key areas in Sagaing, Magway, and Mandalay regions under resistance control, as well as ethnic borderlands in Kayah, Kayin, Rakhine, and Shan states.

The junta’s sham elections violates Myanmar’s own 2008 Constitution, which the junta claims to uphold, and contravenes international law, including UN Security Council Resolution 2669 adopted in 2022, which demands an end to violence, release of all political prisoners, and a return to inclusive democracy.

APHR warns that these sham polls will intensify conflict, not resolve it. Forcing polls amid active warfare risks mass atrocities, further refugee flows into Thailand, India, Bangladesh, and other neighboring countries, and will worsen regional instability.

While the people of Myanmar have shown extraordinary resilience and courage, they should never have been forced to rely on resilience for survival. It is the junta’s violence and impunity that have stripped the country of democracy, justice, and sustainable peace and they must be held accountable.