ASEAN Rejects Myanmar Election as Junta Presses Offensives

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will not recognize the results of Myanmar’s junta‑organized elections, Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said, as the regime geared up for the third and final phase of voting on Sunday.

“We have said ASEAN will not send observers, and by virtue of that, we will not certify the polls,” Hasan told the Malaysian parliament on Tuesday. ASEAN had previously declined Myanmar’s invitation to deploy election observers during last year’s summit in Kuala Lumpur when Malaysia was bloc chair, he said.

None of ASEAN’s 11 members has formally endorsed the process and the bloc will not send observers, though individual governments may still dispatch representatives, he added.