The Myanmar military junta’s sham election is over. Phases one, two, and three have come and gone. And despite the military’s desperate attempt to manufacture legitimacy, the people of Myanmar have once again categorically rejected them.
From start to finish, this so-called “election” was nothing more than a violent and cynical performance designed to produce a pre-decided outcome: the consolidation of military rule under the thin disguise of an election. This was not a transition. This was not a reform. It was just a different style of war.
And yet, we are already seeing signs that some governments may fall into the same trap they did in 2010. Japan’s recent statement of “serious concern,” while welcome in tone, risks becoming just that: concern, and little more. If concern is not matched with decisive action, it is worthless.
We say to the world: do not be fooled. Not again. Not this time.
Violence, repression, and criminalized dissent
Weeks before the first phase of voting, the junta launched airstrikes, ground assaults, and arson campaigns across Sagaing, Magwe, and Mandalay—regions in which large swath of areas have been liberated by the democratic resistance and thus not under military control. Thousands of people were forcibly displaced, villages were shelled, and homes destroyed as a form of collective punishment for lack of consent at the ballot box in places where there were no ballot boxes.
Between phases two and three alone, hundreds of clashes and attacks were recorded, including widespread aerial bombardment across dozens of townships. In several cases, airstrikes targeted civilians gathered at funerals, prayer ceremonies, and public spaces. This was not collateral damage. This was terror, deliberately deployed to break resistance.
At the same time, the junta weaponized its so-called “election protection laws” to criminalize dissent. At least 404 people—324 men and 80 women—were arrested under election-related charges, including for criticizing the process or alleged links to resistance forces. These arrests were not about law enforcement or public order; they were about silencing opposition and enforcing submission through fear.
Propaganda, coercion, and a pre-decided outcome
Over three phases of “voting,” the junta also deployed every tactic in its playbook—bribes, intimidation, threats, surveillance, propaganda—to coerce people into participating. Civil servants under junta control were compelled to vote. Citizens were pressured to have their photographs taken outside polling stations to be used for propaganda in junta media. Evidently, this was enforced performance under surveillance.
The outcome was, of course, pre-decided. The military’s proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), claimed a manufactured victory. Nearly all other political parties, even
those who tried to play by the junta’s rules, were eliminated from the race at the last minute. The USDP, filled with ex-military generals, swept the civilian seats, while the military’s 25% bloc of unelected seats remains untouched.
What we now face is a sham parliament preparing to install a sham government. It is 2010 all over again—but this time, far worse.
Let us not repeat the mistakes of 2010
After the 2010 election, the military initiated the so-called peace process with ethnic resistance groups while starting “power sharing” with the democratic opposition led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The world was too quick to believe the then military regime’s “transition” narrative.
Governments rushed in to lift sanctions. Aid flowed in. Foreign investors lined up to strike deals with military-owned or -linked crony companies. All the while, the military continued to dominate through violence, through resource extraction, through divide-and-rule games with ethnic and democratic forces alike.
But the post-2010 opening was a mirage. And the consequences of that mistaken embrace are still being paid for by our people today.
This time, the situation is different. In 2025, over 70% of the country’s territory is no longer under junta control. The Spring Revolution, the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), the People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), and ethnic resistance organizations (EROs) are building a functioning bottom-up federal democratic governance rooted in solidarity, inclusion, and human rights values. The year 2026 is not the beginning of a junta-led transition. It is the continuation of a people’s revolution.
The real test begins now
In the coming months, the junta will escalate its campaign to gain international recognition. It will use its authoritarian allies like China, Russia, Iran, and Belarus to push the sham government onto the world stage. It will attempt to claim Myanmar’s UN seat. It will seek validation through ASEAN summits. And it will try to exploit any opening left by the silence or weakness of democratic governments.
This is the real test for Japan, for ASEAN, for the EU, for the United States, for the UN. Will you recognize the military’s sham parliament? Will you allow the junta to sit at the table under the false banner of legitimacy?
If so, the consequences will be devastating—not only for Myanmar people’s future, but for the credibility of every international commitment to human rights and democracy.
Reject, refuse, and disengage
We are calling on the international community to take a clear and coordinated stance:
• Reject the results of the junta’s sham election in full, including the illegitimate parliament and government it produces.
• Refuse recognition at all regional and multilateral forums, including the upcoming ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meetings and Summit under the chairship of the Philippines.
• Disengage politically and economically from all junta-controlled institutions, companies, and state mechanisms.
We also call for urgent, practical support:
• Humanitarian aid channeled through the border must be scaled up urgently and immediately, in line with the 2025 October ASEAN Summit decision on the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus (point 25) to deliver humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons affected by the ongoing armed conflicts through cross-border efforts, including from Thailand, India, and Bangladesh into liberated areas.
• Global coordination to stop aviation fuel shipments into Myanmar must be prioritized. The junta’s most lethal weapon remains its air force. Without fuel, its capacity to bomb villages, hospitals and schools will be severely limited.
• Clear communication with ASEAN must continue to ensure no junta official is invited under the pretense of representing Myanmar.
We ask you to stand with the people’s revolution
Myanmar’s people have endured five years of horror—if we count from the February 2021 illegal and brutal coup attempt by the military—with little more than statements of concern from the international community. Yet we have built an inclusive, intersectional movement committed to justice, freedom, and federal democracy.
We are doing the work of dismantling military dictatorship, with or without your help. But the world’s actions still matter.
To those governments tempted to re-engage with any of the junta’s post-sham election entities, we ask: Will you repeat the same mistake? Will you be complicit in the junta’s atrocity crimes and allow your reengagement to aid and abet the military as it continues to commit violence against the people of Myanmar? Or will you finally stand with the people for justice and humanity?
(Khin Ohmar is a Myanmar human rights activist who was involved in organizing the 1988 nationwide pro-democracy uprising. She is also the founder and chairperson of human rights organization Progressive Voice.)
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