UN Expert Warns Myanmar’s ‘Election’ Is a Tech-Enabled Façade, Urges Global Rejection of Digitally Enforced Authoritarianism

Special Rapporteur says junta weaponised state systems, data control and service access to coerce participation, calling the vote a manufactured illusion of legitimacy.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, today called on the international community to unequivocally reject Myanmar’s military-staged election, warning that the first round of voting exposed a system built on coercion, surveillance, and exclusion, rather than democratic choice.

Speaking after the 28 December first round of voting, Andrews said the outcome leaves no doubt that the junta’s election is neither free nor fair, but rather a carefully engineered performance designed to mislead the international community.

“By all measures, this is not a legitimate election,” Andrews said. “It is a theatrical exercise that has exerted enormous pressure on people through fear, threats, and control of access to essential services.”

Digital Control Replacing Democratic Consent

According to reports, voter turnout was extremely low, despite widespread coercion. Junta authorities allegedly pressured students, displaced people, civil servants, prisoners, and ordinary citizens to vote by threatening to cut access to humanitarian aid, education, immigration documents, and other government-controlled services — a tactic that democracy analysts say reflects the growing weaponisation of state digital and administrative systems.

“This is not political participation; it is coercion,” Andrews said, citing reports that young people were threatened with forced conscription if they refused to vote.

For technologists, the situation highlights a disturbing trend: authoritarian regimes repurposing digital identity systems, registries, and service databases as tools of political enforcement.

Engineered Outcomes, Suppressed Data

The election excluded Myanmar’s main opposition force, the National League for Democracy, which was dissolved by the junta. Its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains detained, with her whereabouts and condition unknown. Thousands of political prisoners, journalists, and activists remain behind bars, while independent media has been silenced.

Official results show the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party claiming nearly 90 percent of contested parliamentary seats, amid polling cancellations in 65 townships and thousands of wards, underscoring the military’s lack of territorial control.

“The junta engineered this process to guarantee victory for its proxy and manufacture a façade of legitimacy,” Andrews said. “This is election technology without democracy.”

Criminalising Dissent at Scale

State media reports indicate that more than 200 people have been charged under a sweeping election law that criminalises criticism or protest, with sentences reportedly reaching up to 49 years in prison. Andrews warned that such laws are being enforced at scale, enabled by digital monitoring, informant networks, and controlled communications infrastructure.

A Warning for the Global Tech Community

While condemning violence against civilians by all armed actors, Andrews urged governments and technology stakeholders to recognise what Myanmar represents: a test case in how elections can be simulated using administrative control, fear, and information suppression.

He praised governments that have already rejected the election and expressed concern about countries that sent observers, lending legitimacy to what he called a “farcical exercise.”

“Myanmar’s future belongs to its people, not to those who imprison, silence and terrorise them,” Andrews said.

Call to Action: Defend Democracy in the Digital Age

The UN Special Rapporteur urged governments, platforms, civic-tech developers, and democracy-tech innovators to:

• Publicly reject Myanmar’s sham election

• Counter digital authoritarianism through secure civic-participation tools

• Support open-source election monitoring, independent data verification, and rights-preserving identity systems

• Align technology policy with human rights and democratic integrity

As two further rounds of voting are scheduled for 11 and 25 January, Andrews stressed that silence or neutrality risks enabling a dangerous precedent — where elections exist in name only, enforced by technology and fear rather than consent.

“The international community must make clear that manufactured legitimacy is not legitimacy — and that democracy cannot be simulated.”