This panel discussion was held by the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) and the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) on Friday 10 April 2026 to launch their new joint report on the Myanmar military junta’s illegitimate “elections”.
In this discussion, SAC-M executive director Ben Lee, ANFREL executive director Brizza Rosales and election analyst Amaël Vier discuss the report’s key findings and its recommendations to the international community.
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The report, “Old Generals, New Clothes: The Myanmar Junta’s Illegitimate 2025-26 Elections and the Way Forward” explores the Myanmar military’s years-long strategy to undermine the country’s nascent democracy, engineered by junta leader and alleged war criminal Min Aung Hlaing – whose 2021 coup attempt unleashed a polycrisis of atrocity crimes, political imprisonment, forced displacement, dire humanitarian need, and economic instability that continues to damage and divide the entire region.
Our report scrutinises the junta’s staged elections conducted in December 2025 and January 2026, showing how they comprehensively failed to meet internationally recognised standards for genuine elections. It also showcases the pro-democracy Spring Revolution movement and its burgeoning consensus around a shared vision for an inclusive federal democratic Union built on civilian governance, self-determination, equality and justice.
The Myanmar people are actively forging a new democratic path, as their widespread rejection of the junta’s empty elections again proved. Drawing on views from within Myanmar, our report concludes by listing actions that the international community, including ASEAN and UN forums, must take to support them.