‘No chance’ Myanmar polls will be free and fair: US official

A top US government official said Saturday there was “no chance” the Myanmar junta’s planned elections next year would be free and fair.

Myanmar has been in turmoil and its economy paralysed since the February 2021 coup which ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party won a landslide victory in November 2020 elections but the military alleged voter fraud to justify the coup.

US State Department counsellor Derek Chollet cast doubt over the junta’s pledge to hold new elections in August 2023.

“I think there’s no chance it could be free and fair, and it can be an attempt to just manipulate the region, the international community,” Chollet told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

Almost 2,000 civilians have been killed in the junta’s crackdown on dissent and more than 14,000 people have been arrested.

United Nations special envoy for Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer — who has not been allowed to visit the country since she took up the role late last year — fears an illegitimate poll could cause further unrest.

She said unless Myanmar citizens had faith the election would lead the country back to “proper civilian rule” and the will of the people would be respected, it could be a “trigger point for greater violence”.

Thai foreign ministry representative Pornpimol Kanchanalak however argued the international community should not get “stuck in cancel rhetoric”.

“Condemnations, sanctions, ostracisation... have reached diminishing returns,” she said.

Pornpimol acknowledged concerns about the upcoming poll but said the international community must take junta’s commitment to hold elections “at face value”.

Since she was ousted, Suu Kyi has been in military custody and faces a raft of charges that could result in her being jailed for more than 150 years.