Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the UN human rights workplace, OHCHR, advised reporters in Geneva that voting is predicted to start on 28 December, in what he described as a military-controlled poll performed in an setting “rife with threats and violence” and actively suppressed political participation.
Many main political events have been excluded and greater than 30,000 political opponents – together with members of the democratically elected authorities and political representatives – have been detained since the 2021 coup.
“Removed from being a course of that would spearhead a political transition from disaster to stability and the restoration of democratic and civilian rule, this course of appears practically sure to additional ingrain insecurity, concern and polarisation all through the nation,” Mr. Laurence mentioned.
“The utmost precedence have to be to finish the violence and make sure the stream of humanitarian support.”
Civilians caught within the center
Talking from Bangkok, James Rodehaver, head of OHCHR’s Myanmar group, mentioned the elections are being pushed by in an setting the place civilians are caught between stress from the army to vote and aggressive efforts by armed opposition teams to stop participation.
The junta has claimed it issued some 4,000 pardons for folks charged or convicted of sedition or incitement. However Mr. Rodehaver mentioned such bulletins not often match actuality.
Of the roughly 4,000 folks convicted, solely about 550 have been seen leaving detention centres, whereas others have been freed solely to be rearrested. On the similar time, the army has boasted of arresting greater than 100 folks beneath newly imposed “election safety guidelines.”
OHCHR has credible data that three younger folks have been sentenced to 49 years in jail for hanging posters displaying a poll field with a bullet.
AI and biometric monitoring
Mr. Rodehaver additionally raised issues over the electronic-only voting system, launched alongside expanded surveillance utilizing synthetic intelligence and biometric monitoring, warning that it dangers additional undermining belief within the course of.
Humanitarian entry can also be deteriorating, with civilians compelled to return to villages to vote regardless of insecurity, whereas the army continues a long-standing follow of blocking support to conflict-affected areas. Almost 23,000 folks stay in detention who “mustn’t have been arrested within the first place,” he mentioned.
The UN rights officers famous that the army is presenting the vote as an indication the disaster is ending, regardless of the Secretary-Basic’s warning in October that beneath present situations any elections “threat additional exclusion and instability.”
Thousands and thousands throughout Myanmar have been displaced by preventing and disasters and are actually sheltering in IDP camps.
‘A charade’
Past the issues raised by the UN officers, the unbiased rights professional on Myanmar has issued a fair starker warning in regards to the junta’s election plans.
In his October 2025 report to the Basic Meeting, Particular Rapporteur Tom Andrews mentioned the worldwide group ought to “unequivocally reject and denounce the charade” of the junta’s deliberate elections.
Mr. Andrews – who’s appointed and mandated by the Human Rights Council and isn’t a UN workers member – mentioned latest institutional adjustments by the army have been merely “beauty,” designed to reposition the junta for its election ploy whereas energy stays concentrated within the arms of army leaders.
Key opposition figures – together with Aung San Suu Kyi – stay imprisoned, and at the very least 40 political events, together with the Nationwide League for Democracy (NLD), have been dissolved.
New electoral legal guidelines criminalise dissent, limit digital expression and impose harsh penalties for perceived election “disruption,” whereas huge areas of the nation stay outdoors army management, making a nationwide vote not possible, the report mentioned.
“Elections held on the junta’s phrases will solely deepen division and gas additional violence,” Mr. Andrews warned, including that whereas the folks of Myanmar are anticipated to “reject the outcomes as illegitimate”, the junta’s true target market is international governments whose recognition it seeks.
