Press Release: Sham Election Collapses on Day One, Junta Loses Control of Chin State as Boycotts, Violence, and Cancellations Derail Sham Polls

Chin State, Myanmar, 28 December 2025: On the day of the Myanmar military junta’s phased election rollout in Chin State, the process effectively collapsed amid an overwhelming public boycott, widespread administrative breakdown, and overt coercion of civil service members. Events on the ground demonstrated the regime’s inability to conduct even a minimal semblance of a credible electoral process.

In Hakha and Tedim – the only two townships where polling stations were opened on 28 December – the streets were deserted. The people of Chin State delivered a decisive verdict through their absence, turning the junta’s sham exercise into a ghost election devoid of public participation or legitimacy.

Preliminary results further underscore the farcical nature of the process. In Hakha Town, the junta-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) seemingly claimed a sweeping victory across all three legislative tiers – the Lower House, the Upper House, and the Chin State Hluttaw – despite only just over 600 votes being cast across the entire township. Such figures, in which the state capital has a population in the tens of thousands, lay bare the absence of public participation and consent. To put this figure into context, over 12,000 votes were cast for the eventual winner of the Hakha constituency in 2020.

Results from Tedim Town are not immediately available at the time of writing; however, widespread public boycotts and empty polling stations strongly indicate a similarly negligible turnout.

Observers on the ground confirmed that the only visible presence at polling stations consisted of civil servants assigned as election workers. These individuals were not exercising their democratic rights freely. CHRO received multiple reports that civil servants were forced to perform election duties under threats of dismissal, arrest, loss of salary, or other punitive measures, demonstrating that the regime could only operate polling stations through coercion.

“The junta’s so-called election collapsed before the first ballot was cast,” said Salai Za Uk Ling, Executive Director of the Chin Human Rights Organization. “This vote was conducted in the shadow of airstrikes that killed children, destroyed civilian homes, and displaced entire communities. When people are bombed out of their villages, and civil servants are forced to participate under threat, this is not an election – it is state-organized coercion,” he continued.

The junta’s lack of administrative control is evident in the actions of its own Union Election Commission (UEC), which cancelled the ballot in Thantlang, Falam, and Tongzang townships – originally included for phase two of the ballot – citing security concerns. These pre-emptive cancellations amount to an admission that the junta lacks the territorial control necessary even to stage the appearance of governance in large parts of Chin State.

At the state level, the junta’s claim to legitimacy has collapsed entirely. Out of nine townships in Chin State, elections were held in only two. In those two townships, the public overwhelmingly stayed indoors in protest, leaving polling stations empty and participation effectively non-existent. The remaining seven townships did not vote at all due to insecurity, resistance control, or pre-emptive cancellation by the regime itself. A process conducted in a fraction of the state, without public participation, and under conditions of fear and displacement, cannot confer any mandate or democratic legitimacy.

Since 14 September, the CHRO has documented a sharp escalation of junta military operations across Chin State aimed at suppressing resistance and intimidating the civilian population ahead of the planned elections. Between 14 September and 1 December, the CHRO has documented at least 30 airstrikes on towns and villages across Chin State. These attacks killed 12 civilians, including six children, and injured at least 91 others, striking schools, hospitals, religious buildings, and civilian homes. Thousands of residents have been forced to flee their homes, creating widespread displacement and humanitarian distress.
Against this backdrop of fear, violence, and displacement, the regime proceeded with its election charade.

The reality on December 28 is unmistakable:

• In the so-called “secure” zones of Hakha and Tedim towns, the regime may occupy urban areas but has no public support.
• In the cancelled zones of Thantlang, Falam, and Tongzang towns, the regime has entirely lost administrative control on the ground.
• And across Chin State, the election has been preceded and overshadowed by airstrikes, civilian casualties, forced displacement, and intimidation that stripped the process of any credibility.

CHRO stresses that elections conducted under aerial bombardment, forced displacement, and coerced participation fall short of international standards for genuine democratic elections, such as freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of expression, freedom of information, and freedom from fear, as well as election safety, integrity, transparency, inclusiveness, and the rule of law. Moreover, the junta continues to violate principles of international human rights and humanitarian law and cannot be recognized as legitimate.

CHRO calls on the international community, the United Nations, ASEAN, and foreign governments to recognize today’s events not as an election, but as clear evidence of the junta’s collapsing authority. We urge the immediate rejection of this sham process and renewed action to protect civilians, advance accountability, and support the democratic aspirations of the people of Chin State—who have delivered their verdict not through ballots, but through silence.

For more information, please contact:
Salai Za Uk Ling
Executive Director, CHRO
Signal: +91 87988 37474, E-mail: zauk@chinhumanrights.org

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