ASEAN to assess developments in Myanmar after polls: Anwar
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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said leaders from ASEAN would continue to “consider developments with care, including steps under way relating to the political process” in Myanmar.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KUALA LUMPUR - ASEAN will assess developments in Myanmar following the first phase of elections and avoid actions that would “confer premature legitimacy” to any party, said Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Dec 30.
His comments came as Myanmar’s dominant pro-military party claimed an overwhelming victory in the first phase of the elections after democracy watchdogs warned the junta-run poll would only entrench military rule.
The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup
Mr Anwar – whose country holds the rotating chair of ASEAN until the end of the year – said leaders from the 11-nation regional bloc, which includes Myanmar, would continue to “consider developments with care, including steps under way relating to the political process” in Myanmar.
“Any assessment will proceed in a sequenced manner, guided by the need to reduce violence, avoid actions that could deepen divisions or confer premature legitimacy, and preserve the possibility of an inclusive and credible pathway forward,” he told reporters.
Campaigners, Western diplomats and the United Nations’ rights chief condemned the vote, citing a crackdown on dissent and a candidate list stacked with military allies likely to prolong the armed forces’ rule.
Pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armies opposing the military have pledged to block the election from the patchwork territories they have carved out in the war.
Official results have yet to be posted, but a senior official of the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) told AFP on Dec 29 that they had won 82 of the 102 Lower House seats contested on Dec 28.
Two more phases of voting are scheduled for Jan 11 and 25.
At the last poll in 2020, the USDP was trounced by Ms Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which was dissolved after the coup and did not appear on ballots in this election.
The Nobel laureate has been in detention since the putsch.
Many analysts describe the USDP as a military proxy set to entrench the power of the armed forces in civilian guise. AFP
