The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), which has ruled Cambodia as a de facto one-party state for decades, has offered to monitor Myanmar’s upcoming "elections."
While the move is framed as a gesture of support for regional stability, it is the spectre of one authoritarian regime overseeing a fake election for another authoritarian junta.
A military election creates only more instability for Myanmar. Cambodia’s support for Min Aung Hlaing’s policy confirms that the military junta wants a one-party poll and nothing more.
Cambodia has been criticized for suppressing opposition and undermining democratic norms. In the 2023 Cambodian general election, Prime Minister Hun Sen's CPP faced no genuine competition, as the only credible opposition party was disqualified on technicalities.
Such actions led to accusations that Cambodia's elections are democratic in name only, designed to maintain the illusion of legitimacy for entrenched autocracy.
Similarly, Myanmar's military junta plans to stage an election widely regarded as a sham. It is a desperate effort to regain momentum after ousting the democratically elected government in 2022.
Widespread violence, the repression of dissent, the arrest and execution of elected MPs, and the disenfranchisement of large swathes of the population, underscore the impossibility of a free and fair vote under current conditions.
For Cambodia’s CPP to act as an election monitor for Myanmar is an irony not lost on observers. A regime that actively dismantles democratic processes cannot credibly oversee an election under a military dictatorship. Such arrangements risk legitimizing authoritarian regimes rather than fostering genuine democratic governance.
By appointing Cambodia as an election monitor, Myanmar’s junta appears more interested in clinging onto power than in engaging in any genuine democracy.