A free election in junta-ruled Myanmar is currently "impossible to imagine" a US diplomat said Friday, days after the junta chief doubled down on plans for fresh polls backed by close ally China.
The military seized power in 2021 after making unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and has since arrested and killed thousands and banned political parties in a sweeping crackdown on dissent.
It has said it will hold fresh polls, likely next year, even as it has lost territory across the country to established ethnic rebel groups and newer "People's Defence Forces" formed since the coup.
It is currently "impossible to imagine conducting a free election" in Myanmar, United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack told reporters.
Any poll would "simply be an election that will return them [the military] to power," said Van Schaack, who advises the US government on responses to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
With clashes in almost every region of the country "it is hard to imagine even just logistically how one would administer an election, no less do so in a way that is fair," she said.
State media said Wednesday that junta chief Min Aung Hlaing "clearly reaffirmed" the military's plans to hold elections.
The military has pushed back a timetable for fresh polls several times, and in March the top general hinted any vote may not take place nationwide due to the conflict.
Junta officials are currently conducting a national census, which is seen as a pre-requisite to any new polls.
Any vote would not feature Aung San Suu Kyi's hugely popular National League for Democracy party, which was dissolved by the junta-stacked election commission last year.
In August, China's foreign minister said Beijing supports the military's plan to hold fresh elections and return the conflict-torn country to a "democratic transition."
The civil war in Myanmar dominated discussions at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Laos on Thursday.
Leaders of the 10-nation bloc -- of which Myanmar is a member -- condemned the military's efforts to implement a peace plan as "substantially inadequate", according to a draft summit statement seen by AFP.