ASEAN will not certify Myanmar election or send observers, Malaysia says

KUALA LUMPUR - The 11-member regional bloc ASEAN will not send observers to the ongoing three-stage election in Myanmar and, therefore, not endorse the polls, the Malaysian foreign minister said on Jan 20.

The election, called by the military junta, began in December. The United Nations, a raft of Western countries and rights groups have criticised the polls as a ploy to legitimise military rule through political proxies – a charge the junta has denied.

There was low turnout when voters cast their ballots in the second stage of the poll earlier in January, with the military-allied Union Solidarity and Development Party leading after securing 88 per cent of the Lower House seats contested in the first phase.

Speaking in the Malaysian Parliament, Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said ASEAN rejected a request from Myanmar to send election observers during the annual leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur in 2025, though some individual member states decided to do so on their own.

“We have said ASEAN will not send observers, and by virtue of that, we will not certify the polls,” he said in response to a question from another lawmaker about Malaysia and ASEAN’s position on the election.

Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military staged a coup against a civilian government in 2021.

Separately, Datuk Seri Mohamad also said ASEAN was in the final stages of concluding a long-proposed code of conduct with Beijing in 2026 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 regions. REUTERS