15 | NO CREDIBLE ELECTION OBSERVERS WILL BE ALLOWED IN THE JUNTA’S ELECTIONS Election observation is a crucial component of democratic transitions, helping to build public trust in electoral processes. A high number of domestic and international election observation groups participated in the 2015 and 2020 general elections in Myanmar, and the UEC welcomed their contributions and recommendations, some of which were enacted to improve the conduct of future elections. Election observation has an established methodology, which emphasizes neutrality, independence, and non-interference in electoral processes. Election observers have been recognized as human rights defenders by multiple international organizations, and the right to observe has been confirmed by the United Nations’ Human Rights Committee. However, in recent years, autocratic states have increasingly coopted election observation by inviting groups with government backing or dubious credentials to participate in and rubberstamp their elections, in an effort to seek international legitimacy. One of the most documented cases of spurious election observation was the 2018 Cambodian general election, where 80,000 observers were accredited by the election commission despite having “neither the autonomy nor the skills to conduct an independent, reliable assessment of the elections22”. Min Aung Hlaing has declared that “international election observation, study, and evaluation representatives have been 22 62 Joint Statement by 27 Election Monitoring Organizations, “Fake Observers and the Cambodian Legislative Elections”, 28 July 2018, https://anfrel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/PressRelease-Cambodia-2-edited-1.pdf