By Diyar Guldogan
WASHINGTON (AA) - US bipartisan lawmakers on Wednesday condemned Burma’s upcoming Dec. 28 elections, warning the military-run process lacks credibility and is being staged with support from China to legitimize the junta’s hold on power.
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Jim Risch, ranking member and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Reps. Gregory Meeks and Republican Brian Mast, ranking member and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged the Trump administration to reject the electoral process and results produced under current conditions.
Their statement follows a Nov. 19 House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, during which witnesses unanimously testified that fundamental flaws in the electoral framework and the junta’s conduct ensure the vote cannot be "free or fair."
"Burma’s planned elections this December are proving to be a sham," said the lawmakers.
"Orchestrated by the military junta to deceive the international community, these elections are designed to manufacture legitimacy for the China-backed junta after its 2021 coup and ongoing campaign of violence against the Burmese people," it said.
Despite increased political and military backing from China and Russia, the junta continues to struggle to maintain control of large areas of the country nearly five years after toppling the elected government, they said.
The lawmakers warned that the upcoming vote is intended not to reflect the will of the people, but to entrench military rule under the guise of a democratic process.
“In keeping with America’s commitment to democracy and internationally recognized human rights, we urge the Trump administration – and all of America’s democratic allies – to speak out against these flawed elections and any electoral results that would deny the right of the Burmese people to freely and fairly choose their own government,” according to the statement.
The Burmese people have "bravely" resisted the junta’s rule and prevented it from consolidating control over the country, they said.
"The junta's dissolution of several political parties in 2023, including the National League of Democracy, coupled with the continued imprisonment, persecution, or exile of many officials duly elected in the 2020 general elections, makes clear that any forthcoming vote risks being neither free nor fair.
"Under these conditions, the United States must categorically reject this electoral farce," they said.
Recently, the Trump administration announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for nearly 4,000 Myanmar nationals in the US, which was welcomed by Myanmar’s junta.
Myanmar, ruled by a military junta since February 2021, is currently preparing to hold general elections on Dec. 28, for the first time since the coup.
However, the UN's Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM) warned Wednesday that it is receiving a growing number of reports of serious international crimes committed in the lead-up to elections planned by the country's military authorities.