UN: Myanmar junta using 'brutal violence' to force people to vote

GENEVA

This photo taken on Dec. 14, 2025 shows members of the People's Party preparing a candidate billboard featuring People's Party candidate Kyaw Kyaw Htwe ahead of Myanmar's general election in Kawhmu Township of Yangon Region.

The United Nations said Tuesday Myanmar's junta was using violence and intimidation to force people to vote in forthcoming military-controlled elections, while armed opposition groups were using similar tactics to keep people away.

"The military authorities in Myanmar must stop using brutal violence to compel people to vote and stop arresting people for expressing any dissenting views," United Nations rights chief Volker Türk said.

He also denounced "serious threats from armed groups opposing the military."

Myanmar’s junta is set to preside over voting starting Dec. 28, touting heavily restricted polls as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering civil war.

But former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed and her hugely popular party dissolved after soldiers ended the nation’s decade-long democratic experiment in February 2021.

International monitors have dismissed the phased month-long vote as a rebranding of martial rule.

Türk, who last month told AFP that holding elections in Myanmar under the current circumstances was “unfathomable,” warned Tuesday that civilians were being threatened by both the military authorities and armed opposition groups over their participation in the polls.

His statement highlighted the dozens of individuals who have reportedly been detained under an “election protection law” for exercising their freedom of expression.