On 1 February, the armed forces of Myanmar (Tatmadaw), ostensibly acting on allegations of voter fraud in the general elections of 8 November 2020, detained numerous government officials, including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint, and Union Election Commission (UEC) Chair U Hla Thein, as well as pro-democracy activists and politicians from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and other parties.

The Tatmadaw subsequently announced that it would seize power, declare a one-year state of emergency, and install Vice-President and retired general U Myint Swe as acting president. It was also announced that new elections would be held after the state of emergency under a new election commission, which was later appointed on the night of 2 February.

The undersigned election or human rights monitoring organizations condemn the military coup in Myanmar and call for the immediate release of all detained politicians, government officials, and activists. The Tatmadaw must restore power to the civilian-led government, and seek redress of election-related complaints through the due process of law established under the 2008 Constitution.

Indeed, Myanmar’s Constitution and election laws provide a mechanism to resolve disputes in the form of election tribunals. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which has repeatedly made claims of vote-rigging and irregularities in the recent general elections, has like any other stakeholder the legal right to formally contest election results. It certainly has done so, filing 174 complaints out of the 287 received by the UEC.

Election observers were looking forward to seeing all election-related complaints and potential evidence presented and addressed in tribunal proceedings. According to our information, the UEC was about to proceed with the appointment of election tribunals when the military intervened. Election dispute resolution is an integral part of any electoral process, which rests on the fundamental premise that all sides act in good faith.

Therefore, the Tatmadaw must back down from its coup attempt and instead engage in a peaceful and transparent election dispute resolution process. The road to a fully realized democracy is long and arduous, but it is important that all stakeholders commit to upholding and protecting democratic norms. A repeat of what transpired after the 1990 general elections would mark a stark return to authoritarianism and will not be accepted by the people of Myanmar and the international community.

Signatories:

1. Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)
2. Association for Elections and Democracy (PERLUDEM), Indonesia
3. Cambodian Human Rights Action Coalition (CHRAC)
4. Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC)
5. Cambodian Institute for Democracy (CID)
6. Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO)
7. Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL), Cambodia
8. Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), Sri Lanka
9. Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Sri Lanka
10. Citizen Congress Watch (CCW), Taiwan
11. Civil Network OPORA, Ukraine
12. Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0), Malaysia
13. Coalition of Cambodian Farmers Community (CCFC)
14. Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL)
15. East and Horn of Africa Election Observers Network (E-HORN)
16. Elections Observation Group (ELOG), Kenya
17. ENGAGE, Malaysia
18. Free and Fair Election Forum (FEFA), Afghanistan
19. Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), Pakistan
20. Foundation for a Smoke-Free Taiwan
21. General Election Observation Committee (GEOC)/Nepal Law Society
22. Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM)
23. Hong Kong Election Observation Project (HKEOP)
24. Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA), Cambodia
25. Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP), Indonesia
26. Jaringan Pendidikan Pemilih untuk Rakyat (JPPR), Indonesia
27. Kaohsiung Civil Servant Citizen Watch, Taiwan
28. Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), Philippines
29. Li Kang Khioh Taiwanese Education Foundation
30. MARUAH (Working Group for ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, Singapore)
31. Movement for Free & Fair Elections (MDDE), Sri Lanka
32. National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), Philippines
33. National Election Observation Committee (NEOC), Nepal
34. National Election Watch Sierra Leone (NEWSL)
35. Neutral & Impartial Committee for Free & Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC)
36. New School for Democracy Taipei City, Taiwan
37. NT Pure, Taiwan
38. Open Forum for Democracy Foundation (P-NET), Thailand
39. People Center for Development and Peace (PDP-Center), Cambodia
40. People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), Sri Lanka
41. Pusat KOMAS, Malaysia
42. Shin Yue Cheng Fu Culture Association, Taiwan
43. Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM)
44. Taiwan Jury Association
45. Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB)
46. Tindak Malaysia
47. Transparency International Cambodia
48. Transparency Maldives
49. Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA)
50. We Watch, Thailand
51. West Africa Election Observers Network (WAEON)
52. Women Caucus for Politics, Timor-Leste
53. Women for Social Progress (WSP), Mongolia
54. Youth Resource Development Program (YRDP), Cambodia

(Endorsement list updated on 18 February 2021)

The statement is also available in multiple languages:
English: "Myanmar: Stop the Coup, Let Election Tribunals Do Their Job"
Myanmar: "မြန်မာ : အာဏာသိမ်းခြင်းအား ရပ်တန့်ပေးရန်၊ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲခုံရုံးများအား ၎င်းတို့၏တာဝန်များကို လုပ်ဆောင်ခွင့်ပြုရန်"
French: "Myanmar: Arrêtez le coup d'État, laissez les tribunaux électoraux faire leur travail"
Chinese: "緬甸：停止政變，讓選舉法庭完成其任！"
Spanish: "Myanmar: Paren el golpe, dejen a los tribunales electorales hacer su trabajo"