
Joint Statement: Myanmar: Stop the Coup, Let Election Tribunals Do Their Job
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:
- Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)
- Association for Elections and Democracy (PERLUDEM), Indonesia
- Cambodian Human Rights Action Coalition (CHRAC)
- Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC)
- Cambodian Institute for Democracy (CID)
- Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO)
- Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL), Cambodia
- Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), Sri Lanka
- Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Sri Lanka
- Citizen Congress Watch (CCW), Taiwan
- Civil Network OPORA, Ukraine
- Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0), Malaysia
- Coalition of Cambodian Farmers Community (CCFC)
- Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL)
- East and Horn of Africa Election Observers Network (E-HORN)
- Elections Observation Group (ELOG), Kenya
- ENGAGE, Malaysia
- Free and Fair Election Forum (FEFA), Afghanistan
- Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), Pakistan
- Foundation for a Smoke-Free Taiwan
- General Election Observation Committee (GEOC)/Nepal Law Society
- Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM)
- Hong Kong Election Observation Project (HKEOP)
- Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA), Cambodia
- Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP), Indonesia
- Jaringan Pendidikan Pemilih untuk Rakyat (JPPR), Indonesia
- Kaohsiung Civil Servant Citizen Watch, Taiwan
- Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), Philippines
- Li Kang Khioh Taiwanese Education Foundation
- MARUAH (Working Group for ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, Singapore)
- Movement for Free & Fair Elections (MDDE), Sri Lanka
- National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), Philippines
- National Election Observation Committee (NEOC), Nepal
- National Election Watch Sierra Leone (NEWSL)
- Neutral & Impartial Committee for Free & Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC)
- New School for Democracy Taipei City, Taiwan
- NT Pure, Taiwan
- Open Forum for Democracy Foundation (P-NET), Thailand
- People Center for Development and Peace (PDP-Center), Cambodia
- People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), Sri Lanka
- Pusat KOMAS, Malaysia
- Shin Yue Cheng Fu Culture Association, Taiwan
- Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM)
- Taiwan Jury Association
- Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB)
- Tindak Malaysia
- Transparency International Cambodia
- Transparency Maldives
- Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA)
- We Watch, Thailand
- West Africa Election Observers Network (WAEON)
- Women Caucus for Politics, Timor-Leste
- Women for Social Progress (WSP), Mongolia
- 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"