United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged Myanmar’s junta to focus on increasing aid to its struggling people instead of holding an election, which he said would be neither free nor fair.
Myanmar’s junta has been widely pilloried for pressing on with the election starting this December, while it continues to bomb civilians in a civil war that has killed thousands and displaced more than 3.5 million people.
Guterres, who was in Kuala Lumpur for a summit between the UN and Asean – of which Myanmar is a member – said the focus should be on an immediate end to the four-year civil war.
“I don’t think anybody believes that those elections will be free and fair,” he told reporters. “I don’t think anybody believes those elections will contribute to the solution of the problems of Myanmar.”
The junta, led by Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, sees an election as a chance to reset after four years of grinding war and an opportunity to reclaim some legitimacy in the eyes of the international community for a government that comes from polls – even if it is inevitably stacked with military figures and proxies.
