Regime to allow domestic and foreign organisations to monitor 2025 election: UEC

By Admin 08 Dec 2024

DMG Newsroom
8 December 2024, Sittwe

U Ko Ko, chairman of the junta-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC), said that both domestic and foreign organisations will be allowed to monitor the elections that Myanmar’s military regime has scheduled for November 2025.

He said that election monitoring teams would be allowed to monitor election laws, rules, orders and instructions, inspect ballots, and observe the decision-making process in election protest cases.

“According to the 2015 general election observation standards, domestic and foreign organisations will be allowed to study and observe the election,” he said at a meeting with registered political parties in Naypyidaw on December 7.

The meeting was attended by representatives from 53 political parties including the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the Arakan Front Party (AFP).

He urged political parties to complete their party memberships and open party offices at least 90 days before the election, saying the UEC is doing its part to prepare for the holding of elections.

The regime, which on February 1, 2021, overthrew the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, seized power on the grounds that there was widespread vote fraud in the 2020 election — an assertion that international and domestic observers have disputed.  

The regime’s planned election has the support of regime partners China and Russia, despite scepticism and in many cases outright opposition from domestic, foreign and international organisations that have condemned the coup and questioned the junta’s ability and willingness to hold a free and fair vote.

Meanwhile, fighting between the regime and opposition forces including several ethnic armed groups has been fierce across much of the country. Anti-junta forces have occupied more than 80 cities and towns as well as junta bases and military camps in Arakan, Shan, Kayin, Kachin and Karenni (Kayah) states, and Sagaing and Magway regions.

“Due to the current fighting, the regime will only be able to hold elections in their controlled areas,” said one politician. “There is no possibility of a national election.”