Performative Diplomacy, Real Harm: APHR Warns ASEAN Against Legitimizing Myanmar’s Sham Vote over Observer Talks

KUALA LUMPUR, 26 October 2025— 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 have 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, 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.

“ASEAN must not become a tool through which the junta manufactures legitimacy,” said Mercy Chriesty Barends, APHR Chairperson and Member of the House of Representatives of Indonesia. “To send observers or appear to endorse this process while people remain jailed, displaced and silenced would be a betrayal of the very principles ASEAN claims to uphold.”

“Any talk of credible polling while the whole region is under siege, is misleading and dangerous,” stressed Maria Angelina Sarmento, APHR Board Member and Member of Parliament of Timor-Leste. “If ASEAN truly seeks stability, it should insist on an urgent end to atrocities and unfettered humanitarian support before engaging with any electoral agenda.”

“If ASEAN stands for peace and human rights, leaders must publicly reject any election and prioritize the people’s welfare,” emphasized Raoul Manuel, APHR member and former Member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. “Anything less risks entrenching military rule and abandoning the people of Myanmar to further suffering.” ###

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