‘Neither Free Nor Fair’: EU Rejects Myanmar Junta’s Planned Election

Kuala Lumpur—The European Union will not send observers to Myanmar’s upcoming election, its top human rights official said Friday, dismissing the vote as neither free nor fair and urging Southeast Asian nations to “push for change.”

“We’re calling upon all neighboring countries, including the ASEAN countries, to really firmly push for a change of course,” EU Commissioner Kajsa Ollongren told AFP in Kuala Lumpur.

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has touted the Dec. 28 election as a path to reconciliation in the civil war he sparked by snatching power in a 2021 coup. But international monitors, including a UN expert and Amnesty International, have dismissed the vote as a ploy to legitimize continuing military rule.