Anti-Sham Election campaign urges governments to reject Myanmar junta polls

Mizzima

The Anti-Sham Election Campaign released a statement on 26 December calling on foreign governments to respect the will of the Myanmar people by rejecting the military junta’s planned elections, warning that the process is designed to manufacture false legitimacy and will only deepen repression, violence, and human suffering in the country.

Myanmar people have overwhelmingly rejected the Myanmar military junta’s coup attempt and sham election, the Anti-Sham Election Campaign said.

The Anti-Sham Election Campaign calls on governments around the world to respect the will of Myanmar people by rejecting the junta’s sham election and its results, and to refuse to engage with or legitimize any institutions formed through this process.

The Anti-Sham Election Campaign is a people’s movement platform made up of civil society organizations, strike committees, diaspora groups and individual activists that are campaigning against the junta’s sham election, which is scheduled for December 28, January 11 and January 25.

“An election where citizens vote out of terror is a sham. An election engineered by an illegal military junta to seek false legitimacy is a sham. An election where the pre-determined winner is the military’s own proxy party is a sham,” said anti-sham election campaigner She Lar.

As part of the campaign, an opinion survey was conducted of 3,709 people in October and November, the majority residing inside Myanmar. 98% of the respondents answered that the election was unfair and 96% stated they would not vote.

Myanmar migrants in Thailand also overwhelmingly reject the junta’s 2025 sham election. According to the Research on Electoral Security, Participation, Engagement, and Civil Trust (RESPECT) survey by Burmese Affairs and Conflict Study (BACS), 98% of 209 Myanmar respondents across 14 Thai cities said they do not want to vote. Many also feared serious consequences for refusing, including possible loss of legal status in Thailand, forced return to Myanmar, and job insecurity, among other risks.