SAC-M calls on ASEAN to reject Myanmar junta’s ‘sham elections’

The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), an independent panel of international human rights experts, has strongly condemned Myanmar’s military-run elections and urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to reject the results outright and take escalating punitive action against the junta.

“The people have in fact cast a clear vote against the junta,” said Ben Lee, Executive Director of SAC-M, following the conclusion of the second phase of voting on 11 January 2026. “Phase by phase, they are exposing the junta’s lie.”

Polling stations across major cities, including Yangon, were largely deserted as citizens continued their boycott of what SAC-M described as a “charade engineered by the junta and its backers in a desperate bid for legitimacy.”

SAC-M was formed in 2021 by three internationally recognised experts with extensive experience on Myanmar. Yanghee Lee, a former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar from 2014 to 2020, was known for her warnings about the erosion of democratic space and for documenting atrocities against the Rohingya.

Her colleagues, Marzuki Darusman and Chris Sidoti, previously served as Chair and member respectively of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM). In 2018, the FFM called for top military officials, including current junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, to be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The following year, the FFM revealed how the military’s business empire and foreign arms deals were fuelling continued violence and repression.

Speaking to Channel News Asia, Ben Lee said ASEAN must take a firmer stand.

“We need to see ASEAN say: we utterly reject this outcome, and we will not recognise or engage with the military junta,” he said. “Most importantly, ASEAN needs to double down in its support for legitimate pro-democracy actors—ethnic organisations, minority communities, the National Unity Government, and Myanmar civil society.”

Lee warned that ASEAN’s failure to act sends a dangerous message across the region, potentially normalising military coups.

The SAC-M statement follows the second round of voting in Myanmar’s controversial three-phase general election, held amid civil conflict and under tight military control. The vote covered 100 townships across restive regions, with heavy security and little independent oversight.

Since the military coup of February 2021, Myanmar has been engulfed in civil war. The military dissolved Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD)—which had won a landslide in the 2020 elections—along with other opposition parties, barring them from participating in the current electoral process.

The junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), widely seen as a military proxy, is now dominating the results. It reportedly secured over 80 percent of contested lower house seats during the first phase of voting in December 2025, following what state media claimed was a 52 percent voter turnout.

Independent observers, however, dispute these figures, pointing to widespread boycotts, public disillusionment, and the systematic exclusion of dissenting voices. SAC-M notes that the elections are being held in only 265 out of 330 townships, many of which are under direct military control.

The election process has been marked by repression. Human rights groups and the UN report that at least 22,705 people remain in arbitrary detention, many facing torture, sexual violence, and other abuses. More than 200 individuals are facing criminal charges under laws designed to punish criticism of the election.

According to the Myanmar Defense and Security Institute, the junta launched 119 airstrikes in December 2025 alone, killing 176 civilians and injuring 325 others.

Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also condemned the elections earlier this week, calling them “a theatrical performance” designed to deceive the international community and consolidate military rule.

SAC-M maintains that any claim of legitimacy from this process must be rejected outright and has reiterated its call for international sanctions, arms embargoes, and targeted actions against the military’s financial networks.

The final round of the junta’s staged elections is scheduled for 25 January 2026. SAC-M and other watchdogs caution that any government formed under this process will not reflect the will of Myanmar’s people and must not be recognised by ASEAN or the broader international community.