Myanmar military junta annuls November poll results
Yangon, Myanmar, Feb 26 (efe-epa).- Myanmar’s military junta-appointed poll body on Friday invalidated the results of general elections held in November.
Deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party had won the elections by a landslide.
“The National League for Democracy’s 2020 election result is no longer valid,” Election Commission chief Thein Soe said after a meeting with political parties, according to local newspaper The Irrawaddy.
The meeting was held in the country’s capital Naypyidaw.
The military junta has justified the seizure of power by claiming alleged irregularities in the November elections, in which Suu Kyi’s party won 83 percent of the 476 seats.
Alleged irregularities were first denounced by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the now-dissolved party created by the previous military and which fared very poorly in the polls.
The previous election commission, removed by the junta after it seized power, had denied any irregularities despite the insistence of some military commanders, whose party is assured 25 percent of the seats by law.
The military, who drafted the current constitution in a roadmap to achieve a “disciplined democracy,” exercises great power in the country and also holds the influential interior and defense ministries.
Since staging the coup and arresting members of the government, including Suu Kyi, the military has said it would convene fresh elections within a year.
None of the international observers who monitored the process backed the military’s allegations of electoral fraud.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Myanmar almost every day since the military coup calling on the armed forces to return power to the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest.
Around 748 people have been detained since the coup, including 62 who have already been released, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The association has also reported that at least eight people have been killed in Myanmar, including three shot by police, in post-coup violence. EFE-EPA
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