Table of Contents
Fears of a coup
- On 29th January, 2021, Myanmar was rocked by fears of a military coup, just three days before the scheduled opening of its newly elected Lower House of Parliament.
- The military says that the November 2020 general election was full of “irregularities”.
- Therefore, the results are not valid.
- The UN released a statement saying the Secretary-General is following with great concern recent developments in Myanmar.
- Diplomatic missions of western nations in Myanmar also issued a joint statement on 29th January, 2021, expressing support for the democratic process.
- India and China are not among the signatories.
- Myanmar’s parliament will convene on 1st February, 2021, with military representatives registered to attend the session.
- Myanmar’s military is questioning the authenticity of some 9 million votes cast in the election.
- The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in the election.
- Captured 396 out of 476 seats in the November 8 polls, allowing them to form the government for five more years.
The military has demanded that the proof of the elections being free and fair should be proven by:
- United Elections Commission (UEC) of Myanmar which oversees elections, or
- the government, or
- outgoing parliamentarians
– At a special session before the new parliament convenes on February 1st, 2021.
- Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has justified the move, by saying that the Tatmadaw, or the Myanamr military, “needs to abide by the Constitution”, which is the “mother of the law”.
- ‘The military would respect all existing laws that are not beyond the 2008 Constitution.
- Laws that clash with the Constitution will be revoked.’
The Army’s allegation
- The Army says that the Tatmadaw had found 8.6 million irregularities in 314 areas across all states and regions, and that this indicated the possibility that people had voted more than once, or had engaged in some other voting malpractice.
- The UEC has said it had found no evidence of any voting malpractice or fraud.
- A military juntais a government led by a committee of military leaders.
The ‘Junta’
- A nascent democracy – Myanmar’s democratic transition is a work in progress.
- The country is just a decade out of nearly 50 years of military rule. (1962-2011)
- Myanmar is governed under a junta-authored constitution which dictates power-sharing between the civilian administration and the country’s generals.
- The military had drafted the 2008 Constitution, and put it to a questionable referendum.
- The NLD had boycotted the referendum, and the 2010 elections that were held under the Constitution.
- The Constitution was the military’s “roadmap to democracy”, which it had been forced to adopt under increasing pressure from the west, and dire economic stress.
- But the military made sure to safeguard its own role and supremacy in national affairs, in the Constitution.
- Under the Constitution, the military reserves for itself 25 per cent of seats in both Houses of Parliament, to which it appoints serving military officials.
- Also, a political party which is a proxy for the military contests elections.
- Its share of seats fell further this time because of the NLD’s sweep.
- In 2011, the military decided to release Suu Kyi from her nearly two-decade-long house arrest.
- It then inaugurated its “road map to democracy” on which there has been slow progress.
- 2015 Elections – NLD came to power
- 2020 – The results of the 2020 election, held during the pandemic, are being seen by the NLD as a mandate for its plan of constitutional reform, and remove the military’s role in the government.
- The party of Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace prize laureate, also won the previous elections in 2015 in a landslide.
- But her ability to run the country has been hamstrung by the reservation of 25% of the seats for the military, in parliament.
- This allows it to block constitutional reforms.
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