ASEAN agrees Myanmar election is not a priority, Malaysia says

11/7/2025 15:56

The Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN has agreed that an election in Myanmar was not a priority and is urging the country's ruling junta to adhere to its peace commitments instead, Malaysia's foreign minister said on Friday.



Myanmar, an ASEAN member, is in the grips of an escalating civil war and critics have derided the junta's planned election this year as an attempt to prolong military rule through proxies in the absence of a viable political opposition.



Minister Mohamad Hasan said members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Malaysia is chairing, want Myanmar to honour a "five-point consensus" peace plan its junta agreed to in 2021, months after a coup against Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government.



The peace plan has largely been a failure, with the military government unwilling to engage in dialogue with opponents it views as "terrorists". Opposition political parties have been decimated and what remains of them are either barred from or unwilling to contest the election.



"An election is not part of the five-point consensus," Mohamad told reporters on the sidelines of a gathering of ASEAN foreign ministers.