Deposed chief minister for Mandalay Region Dr Zaw Myint Maung saw two more charges filed against him by the junta on Monday concerning last year’s general election, according to sources familiar with his lawsuits.
One charge was filed against him under Section 171f of the Penal Code in the Amarapura Township court for allegedly rendering eight people unable to vote. The section prescribes a one-year prison sentence for wielding “undue influence” or “personation at an election.”
Another was put forward in Aungmyay Thazan Township for voter fraud under the Penal Code’s Section 130a, punishable by up to three years in prison.
“Amarapura was Dr Zaw Myint Maung’s constituency. They accused him of causing eight people from that constituency to be unable to vote,” a lawyer told Myanmar Now, adding that the case in Aungmyay Thazan may have been targeted at him because of his position in the regional cabinet.
The plaintiff for both cases is Kyaw Kyaw Soe, the deputy director of the Mandalay Region election sub-commission during the 2020 general election. He is also a former military officer who served in the sub-commission in the previous election in 2015.
The military council announced in state media on November 16 that they had “prosecuted” detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and 14 other individuals in the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government—including Zaw Myint Maung—for election fraud.
According to the junta’s announcement, legal complaints were filed against the defendants in respective courts across the country on November 15, but the exact charges were not specified—only that they fell under the “existing laws and parliamentary election laws.”
Zaw Myint Maung has been held in Mandalay’s Obo Prison since the day of the coup. He has had five corruption charges filed against him, as well as lawsuits for allegedly violating Section 505b of the Penal Code for incitement and the Disaster Management Law.
Hearings for his incitement and Disaster Management Law charges are ongoing at the Aungmyay Thazan Township court, with defence witnesses being examined at the time of reporting.
The corruption charges are still reportedly being examined.
On February 1, the Myanmar military carried out a coup on the pretext that voter fraud was perpetrated by the NLD in last year’s general election amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite reports from local and international poll observers that the electoral outcome—in which the NLD won the majority of votes—was valid, the junta’s new election commission officially annulled and overturned the results in July.
The military council started filing charges against NLD leaders under Section 505b immediately after the coup and has also been adding corruption charges and charges of electoral fraud to their cases.
