Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is leading a fresh push for the release of Myanmar’s former leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the country’s military junta begins elections widely dismissed as a sham. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has demanded that Ms Suu Kyi be freed, with the junta using the polls to legitimise its rule while excluding most opposition parties.
The United Nations has warned that the military-controlled ballot is taking place amid “intensified violence, intimidation and arbitrary arrests, leaving no space for free or meaningful participation”. No political parties hostile to the junta have been allowed to stand, and Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has been banned despite landslide victories in 2015 and 2020.
Ms Suu Kyi, 80, is serving a 27-year sentence in the junta’s remote capital, Naypyidaw, on charges including corruption and election fraud, widely condemned as politically motivated. Her family have not heard from her directly in two years and fear she may already be dead. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has not been seen in public since the 2021 coup.
Sean Turnell, Ms Suu Kyi’s former economic adviser who spent 650 days in custody after the coup, branded the election “an utter sham”. He said: “It’s not even close to being a fair election… the military are planning to stay absolutely in control.” The FCDO stated: “The UK government continues to condemn the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi. The military regime must release her and all those who are arbitrarily detained.”
The first phase of voting on 28 December occurs amid armed conflict, mass displacement and economic collapse. Since the election dates were announced in August, at least 862 airstrikes have been reported in 121 townships, including a bombing of a hospital in Rakhine state that killed more than 30 people. The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, warned: “These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression.”
Thousands of opponents have been jailed since the coup, and dissenters face harsh penalties. Three young artists in Yangon who put up anti-election posters received sentences of 42 and 49 years, while a man who tore down a candidate list was jailed for 17 years. The junta insists Ms Suu Kyi is in good health, but her son Kim Aris said: “For all I know, she could be dead already.”
