ASEAN will not certify Myanmar election or send observers, Malaysia says

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 (Reuters) – The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will not send observers to army-ruled Myanmar’s ongoing three-stage election and will therefore not endorse the poll, Malaysia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military staged a coup against a civilian government in 2021.

The election, which began in December last year, has been criticised by the United Nations, many Western countries and rights groups as a ploy to legitimise military rule through political proxies – a charge the junta has denied.

In a low turnout, voters cast their ballots in the second stage of the poll earlier this month, with the military-allied Union Solidarity and Development Party leading after securing 88% of the lower house seats contested over the first phase.

Speaking in parliament, Minister Mohamad Hasan said ASEAN had rejected a request from Myanmar to send election observers during the annual leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur last year, though some individual member states had decided to do so on their own.

“We have said that ASEAN will not send observers, and by virtue of that, we will not certify the poll,” Mohamad said in response to a question from another lawmaker about Malaysia and ASEAN’s position on the election.

Separately, Mohamad also said ASEAN was in the final stages of concluding a long-proposed code of conduct with Beijing this year concerning activities in the South China Sea.

“We hope we are able to do it by this year,” he said.

ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct but took 15 years to start discussions, and progress has been slow.

Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including parts of the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, complicating fishing and energy exploration activities by those countries.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by David Stanway)