Myanmar’s military-appointed election commission yesterday doubled down on claims of mass fraud in last year’s general election, saying it found nearly a third of all ballots were tainted.
The Union Election Commission presented the findings during a press conference in the capital, Naypyidaw, following a months-long investigation into the election on Nov. 8 last year, which the military used as the basis for overthrowing the civilian government in a coup on Feb. 1.
Commissioner Khin Maung Oo said the probe found more than 11.3 million fraudulent votes, citing “a number of irregularities” in advance voting, adding that the previous election commission that certified the poll issued regulations that were “against the law.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide victory in the election that was deemed credible by the international observers. She and former Burmese president Win Myint have been held in detention since the coup.
“We have found that the NLD took advantage of COVID-19 rules and its administrative power so that only their party won the general elections,” Khin Maung Oo said.
The commission in May said that Aung San Suu Kyi’s party would be dissolved over the fraud allegations and its leaders prosecuted as traitors. The army then pledged to hold fresh elections following a state of emergency that could last as long as two years.
In related news, Myanmar’s spiraling COVID-19 count yesterday struck the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, her lawyers said, with a witness for the prosecution failing to testify after becoming infected.
Cases are spiking in Myanmar, with the State Administration Council reporting more than 3,400 new cases Sunday, up from fewer than 50 per day in early May.
A prosecution witness set to testify that she flouted virus restrictions during elections her party won in a landslide last year “was absent on account of COVID-19 infection,” Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters.
A second witness gave testimony on the same charges, and the court also heard evidence on separate charges that Aung San Suu Kyi illegally imported and possessed walkie talkies, he said.
The Nobel laureate and all members of her staff have been fully vaccinated while in military custody, her lawyer Min Min Soe told reporters last week.
She did not give details on when Aung San Suu Kyi — who is believed to have received a first dose before her government was deposed — had received the jab, or what vaccine she was given.
The ousted leader “voiced her grave concern for the people during the third wave of COVID-19” during yesterday’s pre-trial meeting, Khin Maung Zaw said.
Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint, who also faces charges of flouting COVID-19 restrictions — appeared in good health, he added.
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