Myanmar's junta and sham election are illegitimate

The position holds that Myanmar's military rulers and the election they staged are illegitimate, and that their rule should not be recognised. Its advocates call the vote a sham, point to the 2021 coup, the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, political prisoners, airstrikes and atrocities, and urge sanctions and the refusal of recognition.

The position appears in coverage of Myanmar's civil conflict, where 73 publishers from Western and allied countries carry it across 204 matched events. In a second strand of the same coverage, carried by 31 publishers, the conflict is linked to transnational criminal spillover.

The material names no competing position, but events of recent months show governments dealing with Myanmar's leadership regardless. Min Aung Hlaing, the former junta chief, made his first trip abroad as president to India, and Xi Jinping received Myanmar's president in Beijing, where cooperation documents were signed. Myanmar also told ASEAN that the detained Suu Kyi will be looked after. Meanwhile the military carried out an airstrike on a market in Rakhine that killed at least 50 people, and Malaysia began sending Myanmar migrants home despite a United Nations warning.