Thailand offers help in Myanmar junta’s census, election preparations

Thailand’s ambassador to Myanmar visited junta officials in Naypyitaw on Tuesday, offering his government’s support for the junta’s planned efforts to survey the population and hold elections, according to regime-run newspapers. As reported in the junta outlet Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM), Mongkol Visitstump—who has served as ambassador to Myanmar since 2022—met privately with the chair of the junta-controlled union election commission (UEC) Ko Ko and the junta minister of immigration and population Myint Kyaing. The Thai ambassador asked the election commission chair about the “conditions under which Thailand can assist in holding the election”, according to the GNLM report, and discussed the possibility of collaboration between the UEC and the Thai Election Commission. Since seizing power in a 2021 coup, the Myanmar military regime has repeatedly announced and postponed plans to hold elections. Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing displayed his ink-stained little finger after casting his vote in Naypyitaw on the morning of election day in 2020 (Photo: Myanmar Now) The junta reiterated this intention in March 2023 when it formally dissolved the National League for Democracy, the party that led Myanmar’s civilian government before being deposed by the military in 2021. The regime’s ostensible preparations for an election have drawn widespread condemnation from the public, the anti-junta resistance, and international community members including the United States government, who have said that any elections held under the military council can be neither legal, free, nor fair. The publicly mandated National Unity Government—the shadow cabinet formed and endorsed by ousted civilian officials following the coup—has urged the international community to reject any election held under the junta as illegitimate. Khin Yi, the chairman of the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, said during a recent interview with Russian state media that the likeliest date for the junta’s promised elections would be in October 2025. A retired brigadier general, Khin Yi also formerly served as minister of immigration and population during the Thein Sein administration and was reappointed to that position after the coup, serving between August 2021 and August 2022. The military council has said that it can hold elections only after the completion of a national census, which it claims is scheduled to begin in October.

Thailand offers help in Myanmar junta’s census, election preparations

The public, anti-junta resistance, and foreign governments have condemned the junta’s ostensible plans to hold a vote, saying any election organised by the illegitimate regime can be neither free nor fair

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