Myanmar: Global, regional and national unions call on ASEAN to reject sham ‘election’

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and more than 300 global union federations, trade unions, civil society, and human rights organisations from South East Asia and around the world on October 24 called on governments to outrightly reject Myanmar military junta's upcoming planned 'sham' election. The joint statement came ahead of the 47th ASEAN Summit, which started in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on October 25.

Members of Myanmar's junta mark the 10th anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement in Naypyidaw on October 15, 2025. Credit: AFP

The joint statement, issed as a collective show of force by human rights defenders, said the Myanmar military junta's so-called 'election' planned for December 2025 was an illegal, fraudulent attempt to manufacture an illusion of legitimacy. It urges South East Asian governments attending the summit to recall how Myanmar's military junta ignored the peoples decisive vote in 1990 and again organised illegitimate polls in 2010 to bolster it's dictatorship.

"A genuine election cannot take place amid mass killings and repression," the joint statement said. "It is a charade held under the barrel of a gun.

Since the February 2021 military coup, Myanmar's military junta has killed over 7,000 civilians and more than 22,000 people remain arbitrarily detainedwith over 3.5 million displaced. According to IFJ's affiliate, the Myanmar Journalists Network (MJN), more than 27 journalists remain in jail and seven have been killedsince the coup. The junta has banned political parties, imprisoned and tortured democratic leaders, and imposed draconian laws that impose the death penalty for dissent.

The signatories remind ASEAN member states of their "profound moral and international obligation to act" on the crisis. The historic ILO Resolution under Article 33, adopted in June 2025, explicitly calls on all governments to review "the relations they may have with Myanmar military authorities" to ensure they do not "enable, facilitate or prolong" its gross violations. UN Security Council Resolution 2669 and ASEAN's Five-Point Consensus also call for an immediate end to violence.

"Failure to reject this election would render ASEAN complicit in the junta's crimes against humanity," the statement declared, and directed a call to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the current ASEAN Chair, to demonstrate moral leadership, given his own political persecution.

The European Union (EU) is refusing to send observers to what it says is a "regime-sponsored" exercise. In Bangkok, members of parliament from Ireland, the United States, Norway, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and New Zealand expressed unified rejection of the junta's poll and called for global support of Myanmar's democracy movement. Respected electoral monitoring bodies, including International IDEA and ANFREL, have also rejected the planned election.

In a statementin September, the IFJ joined seven global union federations in calling for the removal of a junta aligned human rights commission. The IFJ continues to urge governments and the international community to expose atrocities committed by the repressive military junta.

The IFJ said: "ASEAN must join the international community in rejecting this sham election organised by a military junta which has relentlessly killed, imprisoned, tortured and repressed its own people. It must refuse to give this heinous regime further credibility and stand firmly with the Myanmar people who are suffering the gravest abuses amid horrific conflict."