Military Annuls Election Results Which Saw Victory for Suu Kyi’s Party

Results of the November 2020 general elections in which the National League for Demoracy (NLD) party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory were officially annulled, the military-appointed election commission chairman announced today, during a meeting with political parties in Naypyidaw.

Some major political parties including the NLD and Shan National League for Democracy boycotted the meeting but it was attended by a number of ethnic political parties from Rakhine and Kachin states and dozens of proxy parties allied with the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, led by former military generals.

According to Kaung Myat Htut, the chairman of National Congress Party, who attended the meeting, the new election commission chairman Thein Soe told party leaders that the 2020 election results were automatically annulled due to the fact that the military had taken over powers of the state.

Than Htay, a former army general and chairman of the USDP, was also present at the meeting, but did not participate in the discussions, he added.

Some leaders of the political parties present at the meeting urged the elections commission chairman to abolish the NLD party on charges of conducting a fraudulent vote and to resolve the ongoing nationwide democratic uprising against the Feb.1 coup through a show of strength.

“Four or five political party leaders made those suggestions. The election chairman said he would pass those suggestions to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing,” Kaung Myat Htut said.

Allegations of fraud in the 2020 election have yet to be proven.

There was also a call by some party leaders to take action against all parties which refused to join today’s meeting, showing their disapproval of the coup.

Of all the registered 98 political parties, 53 parties attended the meeting, according to an election commission official who did not want to be named.

Most of the political parties that attended the meeting suffered losses in both the 2015 and 2020 general elections, in which the NLD won a landslide victory. The military junta has installed some of those party leaders in the newly formed State Administrative Council and also in the top positions of state and regional councils.