ASEAN Will Not Certify Myanmar Election or Send Observers, Malaysia Confirms

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20:  The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will neither send observers to Myanmar’s ongoing three-stage election nor endorse the poll, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan confirmed on Tuesday.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military staged a coup against the civilian government in 2021. The current election, which began in December 2025, has been widely criticized by the United Nations, Western countries, and human rights organizations as an attempt by the military to legitimize its rule through political proxies — a charge the junta denies.

In the second stage of the election earlier this month, voter turnout was low, and the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party led after winning 88% of the lower house seats contested in the first phase.

Speaking in parliament, Mohamad Hasan said ASEAN had rejected Myanmar’s request to send election observers during last year’s annual leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur, although some individual member states chose to observe independently.

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

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

“We hope we are able to finalize it by this year,” he added.

ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to establish a code of conduct, but discussions only began 15 years later, and progress has been slow. China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam, complicating fishing and energy exploration by these nations.