The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional bloc will not send observers to Myanmar’s ongoing three-phased military-run elections nor will it endorse the polls, Malaysia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military staged a coup against a civilian government in 2021. It ousted the National League for Democracy (NLD) party from government and jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.
The election, which began on Dec. 28, has been criticised by the United Nations, many Western countries and rights groups as a ploy to legitimise military rule through political proxies – a charge the Myanmar military has denied.
In a low turnout, voters cast their ballots in the second stage of the poll earlier this month, with the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) leading after securing 88 per cent of the Pyitthu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, seats contested over the first phase.
Speaking in parliament, Malaysia’s Mohamad Hasan said that ASEAN had rejected a request from Myanmar to send election observers during the annual leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur last year, though some individual member states had decided to do so on their own.
“We have said that ASEAN will not send observers, and by virtue of that, we will not certify the poll,” Mohamad said in response to a question from another lawmaker about Malaysia and ASEAN’s position on the Myanmar military-run elections.
Separately, Mohamad also said ASEAN was in the final stages of concluding a long-proposed code of conduct with Beijing this year concerning activities in the South China Sea. “We hope we are able to do it by this year,” he said.
ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct but took 15 years to start discussions, and progress has been slow.
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including parts of the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, complicating fishing and energy exploration activities by those countries.
REUTERS
