The 2020 General Elections in Burma/Myanmar

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Title: Myanmar protesters urge China to condemn coup. Will Beijing act?
Sub-title: Protesters accuse China of backing Myanmar’s generals, but analysts say Beijing does not favour a return to military rule.
Description: "“If this is an internal affair, why are you helping the junta?” read another. The nearly-daily rallies at the gates of the Chinese mission forced a response from China’s ambassador to the country, Chen Hai, who said on Tuesday that “the current development in Myanmar is absolutely not what China wants to see”. Beijing was “not informed in advance of the political change in Myanmar,” Hai said, dismissing as “ridiculous” rumours that China was helping the military consolidate its rule by flying in technical personnel and troops. Part of the speculation about Beijing’s alleged backing for the military’s power grab stems from China’s refusal to unequivocally condemn the coup, which took place just weeks after a meeting between China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s commander-in-chief and current head of the military government. During the January 12 meeting in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, the senior general – who is said to harbour presidential ambitions – repeated his claims that widespread fraud had occurred in a November election that returned civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) to power. The coup has brought Myanmar’s experiment with democracy to a halt, only a decade after the end of nearly 50 years of strict military rule. It prompted mass protests and international condemnation, with the United States has already imposed targeted sanctions on the generals who led the coup. Other countries are expected to impose similar curbs although campaigners want to avoid a return to the punishing sanctions that were enforced following the military’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1988, as well as its refusal to honour the results of an election that the NLD won in 1990..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-18
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Title: Myanmar: more than 100,000 protest in streets against coup
Sub-title: Demonstrators reject army claim that majority of country support military junta
Description: "More than a hundred thousand people have poured on to the streets in Myanmar to voice their anger against the coup and reject an army claim that it has majority support. At a demonstration in Myanmar’s main city, Yangon – the largest there since the deployment of troops on Sunday – protesters marched with red flags signalling their loyalty to the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and carried signs denouncing the military. Major junctions were blocked by a “broken down” rally, where drivers left their cars parked across the roads, with bonnets open, and by sit-down protests. Mass demonstrations were also held in the second-largest city of Mandalay, where students, engineers and farmers were among thousands who took to the streets, and in the capital, Naypyidaw. The demonstrations followed claims from a military spokesperson on Tuesday that protests would dwindle and that 40 million of the country’s 53 million population backed its power grab. The military, which once ruled the country for half a century, reiterated its promise to hold fair polls during the press conference, but protesters are unconvinced and have gathered daily to demand the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other politicians from her party, the National League for Democracy. She is now in house arrest. “I want Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, my president U Win Myint and other leaders freed immediately,” said a retired teacher, who was among those protesting in Yangon. “We want our democracy back.” About 1,000 university staff and students gathered outside the Secretariat, a sprawling colonial-era building that once served as the administrative centre for British Burma, to demand the release of their leaders..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-17
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Title: ‘Unacceptable’ violence, intimidation and harassment in Myanmar – UN chief
Sub-title: An increased use of force and the reported deployment of armoured vehicles to major cities throughout Myanmar have sparked the deep concern of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Description: "In a statement issued on Sunday by his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, the UN chief called on the military and police of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to ensure that the right of peaceful assembly is “fully respected” and demonstrators are “not subjected to reprisals”. “Reports of continued violence, intimidation and harassment by security personnel are unacceptable”, he spelled out. The unfolding situation follows a military takeover on 1 February. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, tweeted, “it’s as if the generals have declared war on the people of Myanmar: late night raids; mounting arrests; more rights stripped away’ another Intrnet shutdown; military convoys entering communities”. “These are signs of desperation. Attention generals: You WILL be held accountable”, he underscored. Call for respect Ongoing arrests of political leaders, government officials, members of civil society and media representatives are “deeply concerning”, as are internet restrictions and communication restraints, according to Mr. Guterres who upheld that they “must not be disrupted" to ensure the right to freedom of expression, which includes access to information. He reiterated his call on Member States “collectively and bilaterally” to exercise influence regarding the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Myanmar and reaffirmed the Organization's “unwavering support” to their pursuit of “democracy, peace, human rights and the rule of law”.   “The Secretary-General calls on the military authorities urgently to allow the Special Envoy, Ms. Christine Schraner Burgener, to visit Myanmar under agreeable conditions and to assess the situation firsthand”, concluded the statement..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-15
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Title: Myanmar protests resume, internet restored as military circles
Sub-title: Armoured vehicles on streets of Yangon as people continue protests for restoration of civilian government.
Description: "NetBlocks, which tracks Internet disruption, said on Twitter that connectivity was being restored, but that social media remained restricted for many users. The system was shut down for eight hours from 1am (18:30 GMT). The military seized power on February 1, the day Myanmar’s parliament was due to begin a new session following elections in November, which were won by the National League for Democracy (NLD) in a landslide. Detaining NLD founder and civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as senior members of her government, the generals said they were forced into the coup because of alleged election fraud. Election officials have said there is no evidence of fraud. The United Nations and a number of western countries including the United States have condemned the coup, and on Friday the US imposed the first new sanctions on military chief Min Aung Hlaing and other senior generals. In a statement late on Sunday, following reports of shots being fired in the northern state of Kachin and the deployment of armoured vehicles to various cities in Myanmar, United Nations’ Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” about the situation in the country. The Secretary-General reiterates his call on Member States collectively and bilaterally to exercise influence regarding the protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Myanmar, ” he said in a statement released through his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. On Monday, more than a dozen police trucks with four water cannon vehicles were deployed near the Sule Pagoda in Yangon, which has been one of the city’s main centres for protest..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-15
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Title: Myanmar security forces intensify crackdown on protesters
Description: "Security forces in Myanmar pointed guns toward anti-coup protesters and attacked them with sticks on Monday, seeking to quell the large-scale demonstrations calling for the military junta that seized power earlier this month to reinstate the elected government. More than 1,000 protesters rallied in front of the Myanmar Economic Bank in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, when at least 10 trucks full of soldiers and police arrived and immediately started firing slingshots toward the protesters, according to a photographer who witnessed the events. The soldiers and police then attacked the protesters with sticks, and police could be seen aiming long guns into the air amid sounds that resembled gunfire. Local media reported that rubber bullets were also fired into the crowd, and that a few people were injured. Police were also seen pointing guns toward the protesters. In the capital, Naypyitaw, protesters gathered outside a police station demanding the release of a group of high school students who were detained while joining in anti-coup activities. One student who managed to escape told reporters that the pupils — thought to range in age from 13 to 16 — were demonstrating peacefully when a line of riot police suddenly arrived and began arresting them. It wasn’t clear exactly how many students were rounded up, but estimates put the figure at between 20 and 40. Earlier Monday, Myanmar’s military leaders extended their detention of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose remand was set to expire and whose freedom is a key demand of the crowds of people continuing to protest the Feb. 1 coup. Suu Kyi will now be remanded until Feb. 17, when she will likely appear in court by videoconference, according to Khin Maung Zaw, a lawyer asked by Suu Kyi’s party to represent her. The Nobel laureate remains under house arrest on a minor charge of possessing unregistered imported walkie-talkies. Suu Kyi’s extended detention is likely to further inflame tensions between the military and the protesters who have taken to the streets of cities across the Southeast Asian nation seeking the return of the government they elected..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-15
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Title: Myanmar: troops and police forcefully disperse marchers in Mandalay
Sub-title: Protests against military coup continue despite overnight internet blackout and extra soldiers deployed
Description: "Troops have joined police in forcefully dispersing marchers in the city of Mandalay in northern Myanmar, as protests against the military coup continued despite the deployment of extra soldiers in some areas and an eight-hour internet blackout overnight. Images and reports from the city on Monday showed police and soldiers using rubber bullets and slingshots to disperse protesters. A student union in the city said several people had been injured. Myanmar resurfaced online at about 9am local time on Monday after an internet-monitoring service showed a dramatic fall in connectivity from midnight. There were fears the blackout might be used as cover for mass arrests or violence. There was no sign of that on Monday, but the country woke to extra troops on the streets of many cities including the former capital Yangon, where the new forces on the ground included the 77th light-infantry division which, during pro-democracy protests in 2007, was accused of ramming demonstrators and using live ammunition against them. Protests continued in the city despite the show of force, albeit in numbers smaller than the peaks of Friday and the weekend. Students and Buddhist monks demonstrated in front of the troops, and a banner reading “We do not want military government” was stuck to an army vehicle outside Yangon’s central bank. “Patrolling with armoured vehicles means they are threatening people,” said 46-year-old Nyein Moe, among the more than 1,000 gathered in front of the central bank in Yangon. “People are marching on the streets and they don’t care to be arrested or shot. We can’t stop now. The fear in our mind is going away.” There was a fresh rally in the southern city of Dawei, too, a verified live stream on Facebook showed, with hundreds of protesters accompanied by a marching band..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-15
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Title: Pro-military thugs injure two in attack on restaurant in army stronghold of Meiktila
Sub-title: ‘It’s as if the people in charge knew this was going to happen and deliberately let it happen,’ says man injured in attack
Description: "Knife-wielding thugs supporting the military ransacked a restaurant in Meiktila and threw bricks on Friday after accusing the diners of banging pots and pans in defiance of last week’s coup. The attackers were marching through the town in central Myanmar, which is home to several military barracks, at around 4pm before they stormed into the Ywet Nu restaurant, witnesses said. Videos posted on Facebook showed them throwing rocks, using slingshots, and overturning tables and chairs. Witnesses said the windows of nearby houses were also broken. “When they were marching, we were eating,” said Than Tun Lin, the restaurant’s owner, who injured his neck during the attack. “Then they just barged inside the restaurant claiming we were banging our pots and pans and started throwing bricks. Some of them had knives, it was like a hijack.” Another person, Chit San Maung, was injured in the neck, back, stomach and shoulders during the attack. “It’s like there’s no security in the town, we don’t even feel safe. And it’s as if the people in charge knew this was going to happen and deliberately let it happen,” says Chit San Maung, who was attacked. Meiktila township police station chief officer Thein Tun denied the allegation. “When the person concerned reports the case, we’ll take necessary action. We’ve been on patrols around the town for safety, taking precautions to maintain rule of law,” he told Myanmar Now..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-14
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Title: Tanks on streets of Myanmar city prompt US embassy warning
Sub-title: US warns of ‘military movements’ in Yangon and expects internet to be cut in next 12 hours
Description: "The US embassy in Myanmar has warned of “military movements” in the country’s main city, Yangon, and has said it expects the internet to be interrupted over the next 12 hours. The warning came after the appearance on Sunday of three Tatmadaw armoured vehicles on the streets of the commercial capital and the site of major daily protests against the military’s coup on 1 February. The expected outages, which have not been confirmed by the Norwegian telecommunications firm that runs the country’s communication grid, have raised fears of a possible crackdown overnight. The US urged its citizens to “shelter-in-place” on Sunday evening local time after three armoured vehicles were sighted in the city for the first time since the 1 February military coup. The embassy also said there was a “possibility of telecommunications interruptions overnight between 1am and 9am” (1830 to 0230 GMT). The internet was blocked last Saturday as the protest movement was taking shape but restored after 24 hours. Mostly young demonstrators have used the internet to organise, document their protests and capture the police response including firing rubber bullets at crowds and in some instances the use of live ammunition. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Myanmar’s major cities for a ninth day of anti-coup demonstrations on Sunday. Security forces fired to disperse protesters outside a power plant in the northern state of Kachin, footage broadcast live on Facebook showed, although it was not clear if they were using rubber bullets or live ammunition. Hundreds of people had gathered late on Sunday outside a power plant that soldiers had occupied in the city of Myitkyina. As darkness fell, riot police accompanied by troops arrived to drive away the crowds, the footage showed. A convoy on motorbikes and in cars drove through the capital, Naypyidaw. In the south-eastern coastal town of Dawei, a band played drums in shadows cast by awnings as crowds marched under the hot sun. In Waimaw, on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in Kachin, crowds carried flags and sang revolutionary songs. Many of the protesters nationwide held up images of Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s face. Her detention, on charges of importing walkie-talkies, is due to expire on Monday. Her lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, could not be reached for comment. More than 384 people have been detained since the coup, the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said, in a wave of mostly night-time arrests..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-14
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Title: How Myanmar’s popular uprising aims to topple military rulers
Sub-title: Amid crackdown, protesters aim is to take away the coup leaders’ power by stopping all governance mechanisms from working.
Description: "Starve the government of legitimacy and recognition; stop it from functioning by staging strikes; and cut off its sources of funding. That is the strategy emerging from a mass movement in Myanmar aimed at toppling the new military dictatorship. As protesters defying the February 1 coup brave beatings, arrests, water cannon, and even live ammunition, activists hope a “no recognition, no participation” approach can sustain pressure even if demonstrations are stamped out with violence. “The immediate aim is to take away the military’s power by stopping all of its governance mechanisms from working,” said Thinzar Shunlei Yi, who like many activists is now in hiding to avoid arrest. “It will disable the military’s ability to rule.” Myanmar’s fragile 10-year experiment in democracy was snuffed out in early February when soldiers arrested civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and other top officials in early morning raids as military chief Min Aung Hlaing seized power. A civil disobedience movement began almost immediately and amassed support from broad swaths of society. Trains have ground to a halt, hospitals have closed, and ministries in the capital, Naypyidaw, are believed to be straining amid mass walkouts. Many thousands including nurses, doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, farmers, railway staff, civil servants, factory workers and even some police officers, have gone on strike or defected in a bid to cripple the new military government..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-13
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Title: Facebook curbs Myanmar military over 'misinformation' as protests swell
Sub-title: Thousands take to the streets again as junta releases 23,000 prisoners and detains more opponents overnight
Description: "Facebook has imposed widespread restrictions on Myanmar’s military rulers to prevent them spreading “misinformation”, as tens of thousands again took to the streets in what was set to be the biggest day of protests against the coup so far. The social network site said on Friday that it would reduce the distribution of all content and profiles run by Myanmar’s military, saying the generals have “continued to spread misinformation” after they seized power and detained civilian leaders in a coup. The measures were not a ban, Facebook said in a statement, “but are aimed at reducing the number of people who see the content” and will apply to an official page run by the army and one by a military spokesperson. They would also cover “any additional pages that the military controls that repeatedly violate our misinformation policies”. The pages would no longer appear on news feeds as “recommended”. The social media giant said it had also suspended the ability of Myanmar government agencies to send content-removal requests to Facebook through the normal channels used by authorities across the world. “Simultaneously, we are protecting content, including political speech, that allows the people of Myanmar to express themselves and to show the world what is transpiring inside their country,” said Rafael Frankel, Facebook’s director of public policy. Hundreds of thousands of people have been protesting across Myanmar since the army overthrew the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and detained most top leaders on 1 February. Friday saw hundreds of separate marches in Yangon alone as people marked the Union day public holiday with what appeared to be the biggest show of defiance since the military takeover. Witnesses said there were hundreds of separate marches, each with around 2,000 participants, and all converging on focal points such as Hledan, Sule pagoda and the Russian and Chinese embassies. One march consisted of the fans of rival English football teams joining together to vent their anger. One student protester outside the Russian embassy said: “We don’t want to join the main rally at Sule pagoda because we are worried the military will go there. The military won’t do anything outside an embassy because it will hurt their image so we feel safer here..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-12
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Title: Myanmar coup leader: ‘Join hands’ with army for democracy
Description: "Myanmar’s coup leader used the country’s Union Day holiday on Friday to call on people to work with the military if they want democracy, a request likely to be met with derision by protesters who are pushing for the release from detention of their country’s elected leaders. “I would seriously urge the entire nation to join hands with the Tatmadaw for the successful realization of democracy,” Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said using the local term for the military. “Historical lessons have taught us that only national unity can ensure the non-disintegration of the Union and the perpetuation of sovereignty,” he added. In addition to the military commander’s message published Friday in the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the new junta also announced it would mark Union Day by releasing thousands of prisoners and reducing other inmates’ sentences. Min Aung Hlaing’s Feb. 1 coup ousted the civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and prevented recently elected lawmakers from opening a new session of Parliament. It reversed nearly a decade of progress toward democracy following 50 years of military rule and has led to widespread protests in cities around the country. The military has said it was forced to step in because Suu Kyi’s government failed to properly investigate allegations of fraud in November elections, though the election commission has said there is no evidence to support those claims. The rallies against the coup — now daily occurrences in Myanmar’s two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay — have drawn people from all walks of life, despite an official ban on gatherings of more than five people. Factory workers and civil servants, students and teachers, medical personnel and people from LGBTQ communities, Buddhist monks and Catholic clergy have all come out in force. On Thursday, people from Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups, who are concentrated in far-flung, border states, joined in — a striking show of unity in a country where some groups have resented the Burman majority’s control and have also had their differences with Suu Kyi. But their deep mistrust of the military, which has brutally repressed their armed struggles for more autonomy, has made them uneasy allies with her party. The protesters are unlikely to be swayed by Min Aung Hlaing’s call for unity, which come on Union Day, a national holiday celebrating the date in 1947 that Myanmar, then known as Burma, when many of the country’s ethnic groups agreed to unify following decades of British colonial rule..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-12
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Title: Myanmar police used machine guns against protesters, says Amnesty
Sub-title: Analysis of video evidence shows police firing live rounds at protesters and shooting one woman in the head.
Description: "Analysis of images from the protest showed a member of the police carrying a Myanmar-made BA-94 or BA-93 clone of the Uzi sub-machine gun, the human rights group said, contradicting the military’s claim that security forces only deployed non-lethal weapons during Tuesday’s protest. The video of the shooting captured the exact moment the young woman, identified as Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, was hit in the head by a bullet. According to local media, the 19-year-old has lost significant brain function and only has a slim chance of survival. Amnesty verified the video and said the alleged police gunman could be seen standing at or close to the other side of the road from where the woman was shot. She was sheltering from water cannon with other protesters behind a bus stop when she was hit. “The social media materials we have verified show that police recklessly targeted protesters, with no respect for their lives or safety whatsoever,” said Sam Dubberley, head of Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence laboratory. “The serious injuries sustained by this young woman were caused by the Myanmar police firing live ammunition directly towards peaceful protesters,” he added. The shooting took place a day after coup leaders threatened to “take action” against protesters. After the young woman was hit, more gunshots could be heard in the video, which also captured fire bursts coming from weapons wielded by the police. Amnesty also verified the exact location of the shooting as being on Taungnyo Road, just southeast of the Thabyegone Roundabout in Naypyidaw. Dubberley urged government forces to “immediately stop” the “unnecessary and excessive use of force”, adding that, as protests continue, people’s right to peacefully express their grievances should be respected..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-12
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Title: US sanctions Myanmar coup leaders as generals warn protesters to return to work
Description: " The United States on Thursday (Feb 11) slapped sanctions on the leaders of Myanmar's military government, warning that more punishment could come even as the generals in Yangon ordered demonstrators to get back to work or face "effective actions". As Myanmar was preparing for a seventh consecutive day of anti-coup rallies, the US Treasury Department announced it was blocking any US assets and transactions with 10 current or former military officials held responsible for the Feb 1 coup. Demonstrations condemning the ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi have largely been peaceful, although security forces earlier in the week used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets on protesters, with isolated reports of live rounds being fired. In the most significant concrete action, President Joe Biden announced his administration was cutting off the generals' access to US$1 billion in funds in the United States. Targets of US sanctions announced Thursday include Army chief General Min Aung Hlaing, who now holds legislative, judicial and executive powers in Myanmar. Min Aung Hlaing was already under US sanctions over the campaign against the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority. Also targeted are military leaders in the new cabinet such as Defence Minister General Mya Tun Oo, as well as three gem exporting companies controlled by Myanmar's military. "We are also prepared to take additional action should Burma's military not change course," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, using Myanmar's former name. "If there is more violence against peaceful protesters, the Burmese military will find that today's sanctions are just the first," she said..."
Source/publisher: "AFP" (France) via "CNA" (Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-12
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Title: Facebook Twitter Myanmar: Evidence police deployed sub-machine guns against peaceful protesters, despite denials
Description: "A young woman was shot in the head by Myanmar’s security forces during protests, Amnesty International has confirmed after investigating footage showing the attack. This evidence also contradicts Myanmar military claims that security forces were not carrying lethal weapons. A video shared on social media of the shooting, which happened in the capital of Nay Pyi Taw on 9 February, was verified by Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence experts. According to media reports, the woman has lost significant brain function and has only a slim chance of survival. The Myanmar military’s ‘True News Information Unit’ said in a statement that security forces only deployed non-lethal weapons. However, images show a member of the police (pictured above) wielding a Myanmar-made BA-94 or BA-93 Uzi clone, a Myanmar-made variant of this sub-machine gun. In the verified coordinates of the image, the alleged police gunman is standing at or close to the other side of the road from where the woman was shot. The distressing video captures the exact moment the young woman, named on social media as 19-year-old Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, is hit in the side of her head by a bullet as she turns away from security forces. She had been sheltering with protesters from water cannons behind a bus stop when she was shot. “The serious injuries sustained by this young woman were caused by the Myanmar police firing live ammunition directly towards peaceful protesters,” said Sam Dubberley, Head of Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab. “The social media materials we have verified show that police recklessly targeted protesters, with no respect for their lives or safety whatsoever. Their abhorrent use of lethal force against protesters is unlawful, and must be independently, thoroughly and promptly investigated..."
Source/publisher: "Amnesty International" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-11
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Title: The generals in Myanmar are not as secure as they look
Sub-title: The brazen seizure of power by the military has energised the population and produced a public display of cross-party unity
Description: "little over a week after the Myanmar military seized power and arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and dozens of other ministers and activists, a counter-movement has taken hold across the country. The military’s efforts to thwart the spread of demonstrations – by the downing of internet connections and by use of intimidation and violence, including the shooting of one protester, Mya Thwe Thwe Khine, this week – have been in vain. Mass gatherings have spread from cities in the centre to far-flung towns in the north-east, close to the border with China. Against lines of armed riot police, protesters have so far held their ground. Aung San Suu Kyi remains in detention, her location unknown. The charges she faces – among them possession of illegally imported walkie-talkies – are clearly a ruse intended to prolong her confinement while the military finds a way to stymie her popular influence. On Tuesday night, police raided the headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, whose landslide win in elections in November set in motion the train of events that led to the military’s coup. It is likely they were looking for evidence to incriminate other party members, or indeed criminalise the party altogether, in an attempt to weaken its organising power. Upon seizing power, the military declared a year-long state of emergency, which it hopes will give it space to develop a strategy for control of the country well into the future. In that time, the generals may seek out ways to condition Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues – via negotiation, incentives or threat – into becoming a less assertive political force. Otherwise they will move to banish the party from formal politics altogether. The NLD’s dramatic win in November 2020 was evidence both of the continued emboldening of its support base, despite repeat efforts by the military to undermine Aung San Suu Kyi during her five years as state counsellor, as well as the glaring unpopularity of the military, whose party won only 33 of 476 seats..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-11
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Title: Myanmar coup: Woman 'shot' at protest fights for life
Sub-title: A woman who was severely injured while protesting against Myanmar's military coup is in a critical condition.
Description: "She was hurt at a protest on Tuesday in the capital city of Nay Pyi Taw, which saw police trying to disperse protesters using water cannon, rubber bullets and live rounds. Rights groups and news outlets say the woman was shot in the head. There have been reports of serious injuries as police have increased their use of force, but no casualties so far. Tens of thousands have turned out in street protests against the coup, which overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically-elected government last week, despite a recent ban on large gatherings and a night curfew. Demonstrations re-started on Wednesday morning, for a fifth consecutive day, with a large group of civil servants gathering in Nay Pyi Taw to protest. Pools and princesses: Myanmar protesters go all out Myanmar coup: What is happening and why? 'We have no weapons - so I fight with a pen' Video of shooting On Tuesday, police had used water cannon in Nay Pyi Taw against protesters, who refused to retreat. Warning shots were reportedly fired into the air before rubber bullets were fired at the crowd - but doctors later said it appeared live ammunition had hit protesters. According to BBC Burmese, who spoke to an unnamed medical officer from a Nay Pyi Taw hospital, one woman suffered a serious head injury and another demonstrator had chest injuries. The woman is now in intensive care. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, a doctor from the hospital said the woman had a "projectile lodged in her head and had lost significant brain function". The unidentified doctor said the woman's wound was consistent with that of live ammunition, and that a metal bullet had penetrated the back of her right ear. A man wounded at the same protest also appeared to have similar injuries. A separate report by Fortify Rights quoted a doctor who said the woman was brain dead from an "imminently fatal gunshot wound to the head"....."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-10
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Title: Myanmar junta leader asks Thai counterpart for help on democracy
Description: "Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who himself first seized power in a coup, said on Wednesday (Feb 10) that he had received a letter from Myanmar's new junta leader asking for help to support democracy. Prayut, who overthrew an elected prime minister in 2014 and stayed in office after a 2019 election which his rivals said was badly flawed, told reporters in Bangkok that he had always supported democracy in the neighbouring country. Min Aung Hlaing's army overthrew elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb 1 and detained her, alleging fraud in an election last year that her party won in a landslide. The electoral commission had dismissed the army's claims. READ: Myanmar anti-coup protests resume despite bloodshed READ: Myanmar military raids Aung San Suu Kyi's party offices as UN slams violence "We are supportive of the democratic process in Myanmar, but what is most important today is to maintain good relations because it impacts the people, the economy, border trade, particularly now," Prayut said. "Thailand supports the democratic process. The rest is up to him to see how to proceed," he said. Since the coup, Myanmar has been convulsed by the biggest protests in more than a decade as Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters challenge the coup that halted a tentative decade-long transition to democracy..."
Source/publisher: "Reuters" (UK) via "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-10
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Title: Myanmar military implausibly plays the Rohingya card
Description: " After grabbing power in a February 1 coup that has been resisted by massive demonstrations and condemned by the US, EU and UN, Myanmar’s military regime would appear to have few cards to play to win acceptance. But one the coup-makers amazingly think they can play is the plight of Muslim Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, who were driven across the border during brutal military campaigns in 2016-17, and those who have remained behind in Myanmar. Shortly after overthrowing Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government, the new military regime sent a letter to Bangladesh’s government through its ambassador in Myanmar to explain their reasons for the coup, namely unsubstantiated allegations of fraud at the November 2020 election Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) resoundingly won. In the letter, the full contents of which has not been made public, the military regime also mentioned a possible solution for solving the Rohingya crisis. That prompted Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Abdul Momen, quoted by the Dhaka Tribune on February 6, to say “these are good news. It’s a good beginning.” Inside Myanmar’s Rakhine state, several local military commanders have visited Muslim-inhabited areas close to the Bangladesh border and a camp for internally displaced Rohingyas in the state capital Sittwe..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-10
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Title: Myanmar protesters return to streets in huge numbers amid police defections
Sub-title: Protests swell across country, with dozens of police officers choosing to join protesters in call for reversal of coup
Description: "Protesters have turned out in huge numbers across Myanmar, a day after police instigated the most violent scenes yet in demonstrations against a military coup that removed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. An estimated 100,000 people gathered in the commercial capital Yangon on Wednesday, according to witnesses, with many more marching across the country. A day earlier, tens of thousands demonstrated in major cities and smaller towns in defiance of a ban on gatherings in some areas, with police using water cannon, rubber bullets and live rounds against them. One woman remains in a critical condition after being shot in the head in the capital Naypyidaw. In Loikaw, the state capital of Kayah, about 40 police joined protesters on Wednesday and held a banner saying: “Members of Myanmar police force (Kayah state) stand with civilians.” Other officers waved posters that read: “We do not need military dictatorship” and raised three-finger salutes, a symbol of resistance against the military. At a separate protest in the city of Mawlamyine, a single officer moved to join protesters. On Tuesday, about 20 police switched sides at four different sites – at Pathein, Naypyidaw, Myeik and Magway. Protesters in Yangon have largely adhered to a curfew imposed from 8pm to 4am under section 144 of Myanmar’s colonial-era Penal Code – turning instead to pot and pan banging from the safety of their homes – but have defied the ban on large gatherings. The United States and United Nations condemned the use of force against protesters, who demand the reversal of the coup and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) and activists..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-10
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Title: Myanmar: UN office expresses ‘strong concern’ at use of force against demonstrators
Sub-title: The United Nations in Myanmar has voiced strong concerns over Tuesday’s reported use of force by security forces against demonstrators protesting the military takeover and arrests of elected leaders and politicians.
Description: "“I call on the security forces to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression”, Ola Almgren, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, said in a news release. “The use of disproportionate force against demonstrators is unacceptable”, he added. The UN office in the country cited reports from capital Nay Pyi Taw, Mandalay and other cities, of numerous demonstrators having been injured, some of them seriously, by security forces in connection with the ongoing protests. Mr. Almgren reiterated UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ call on the military leadership to respect the will of the people of Myanmar and adhere to democratic norms, with any differences to be resolved through peaceful dialogue Over the weekend, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) also called on the security forces in Myanmar to ensure people’s right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and that demonstrations are not subjected to reprisals. The military takeover, last Monday, followed escalating tensions between the military and the government after the November 2020 elections, which was won by Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD). The polls were only the second democratic elections in Myanmar since the end of nearly five decades of military rule. Uphold children's rights: UNICEF The UN Children's Fund UNICEF released a statement on Tuesday through it's office in Yangon, expressing deep concern regarding the impact of the crisis in Myanmar on children’s wellbeing, and reminded all parties of their obligations to uphold all children’s rights as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Myanmar is a State Party, and under its own Child Rights Law enacted in July 2019..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-10
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Title: Myanmar's military overturned a democratic election. Now they're warning protesters not to 'destroy democracy'
Description: "Myanmar's new military junta, which overturned the results of democratic elections when it seized power last Monday, has warned the public not to "destroy" democracy following three days of protests. In a statement on the government-run MRTV channel, the military warned that "democracy can be destroyed" without discipline, and that people who "harm the state's stability, public safety and the rule of law" could face legal action. It came as concerns are growing that the junta will crack down on tens of thousands of people protesting against the February 1 coup, after the military imposed a curfew and restrictions on public gatherings in the second largest city, Mandalay, amid threats to use live ammunition against demonstrators. Notices have been issued to several townships in Mandalay imposing a curfew from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m., according to official notices posted to social media and translated by CNN. Public gatherings of more the five people, joining marches on foot or in a car, and public speeches have been prohibited in parts of the city, the notice said, citing that people are at risk of causing a riot by carrying out "worrisome behaviors that could affect the public peace and rule of law." Those arrested could face prosecution under Section 144 of the Criminal Code for "unlawful assembly." Section 144 has been used in the past as a way to stop lawful protests and to justify violent crackdowns on mass demonstrations. For a fourth straight day Tuesday, thousands of people gathered in the capital, Naypyidaw, against the military takeover and called for the release of detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected lawmakers. Riot police used water cannon against protesters who had assembled near a barricade on a main road in the capital. The demonstrators could be heard chanting "people's police." Police warned on loudspeakers that force could be used if the protesters did not leave the area..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-09
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Title: Myanmar protesters defy ban on gatherings to demonstrate against coup
Sub-title: Police use water cannon on protesters in the capital and arrest 27 in Mandalay
Description: "Opponents of Myanmar’s military coup have defied bans on big gatherings to rally for a fourth day following the biggest demonstrations in the country in more than a decade. The 1 February coup and detention of elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi sparked outrage across the south-east Asian country of 53 million, and a growing civil disobedience movement affecting hospitals, schools and government offices. On Monday the army announced bans on gatherings in certain cities and towns and a curfew. But on Tuesday morning large crowds again gathered near Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon. One witness estimated there were tens of thousands on the streets by mid morning. The protest in Yangon was largely peaceful but police fired water cannon on demonstrators in the capital Naypyidaw and in Bago. In the second-biggest city of Mandalay police arrested at least 27 anti-coup demonstrators, including a journalist, media organisations said. A journalist from the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) said he was detained after filming the rally. He said people were beaten. Two media organisations also confirmed the arrests. In Yangon martial law and rumours of incoming soldiers had created an atmosphere of unease, but protesters were determined. Pyae Phyo, 33, was gathered with his friends from the Myanmar Seamen Union under the shade of a tree near Sule Pagoda. “Because of last night’s martial law announcement I thought people may not come,” he said. “But they have come. I am so proud of my people. Every day we will come here. Every day we aren’t free we will protest peacefully for our real leaders, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and president U Win Myint.”..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-09
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Title: In Myanmar, protesters urge police to join democracy fight
Description: " As thousands of protesters again take to the streets across Myanmar in escalating protests against last week’s military coup, some have been met with force by the police for the first time. Videos on social media showed police firing water cannon at protesters in the isolated capital of Naypyidaw, as they demanded an end to military rule and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s leader and founder of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), who is under house arrest in the city. On Sunday, some protesters were also dispersed by warning shots fired into the air in Myawaddy, on the border with Thailand. So far however, there have been no reports of force in Yangon where huge crowds were again gathering on Monday. At the colonial-era City Hall in Myanmar’s largest city, hundreds were on the streets, with more police at hand and water cannons again on standby. Crowds were also forming elsewhere in the city, including the Hledan Center where youth activists have been demonstrating for the past three days. Their placards urged the police to stand with the protesters, as part of a growing civil disobedience movement that has already won support from doctors, teachers and other government workers..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-08
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Title: Myanmar junta imposes curfew, meeting bans as protests swell
Description: " Myanmar’s military government imposed a curfew and bans on gatherings of more than five people in the country’s two biggest cities on Monday as protests against last week’s coup showed no sign of abating. The decrees covering Yangon and Mandalay were issued on a township-by-township basis, and those which have become public so far have the same restrictions. At least seven have been issued, and more are expected for other areas. Rallies and gatherings of more than five people, along with motorized processions, are banned, and a 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew is imposed. The measures are effective until further notice. The decrees say they were issued in response to people carrying out unlawful actions that harm the rule of law. Demonstrations against the coup had intensified Monday and spread to more parts of the country. Police fired a water cannon at hundreds of protesters in Myanmar’s capital who were demanding the military hand power back to elected officials. Protesters also rallied at a major downtown intersection in the country’s largest city, Yangon, raising a three-finger salute that is a symbol of resistance and carrying placards saying, “Reject the military coup” and “Justice for Myanmar.” There were also reports of new demonstrations in towns in the north, southeast and east of the country, as well as in the city of Mandalay, where there was a procession of marchers and motorbikes. The growing wave of defiance — particularly in the capital Naypyitaw, where such protests are unusual — was striking in a country where demonstrations have been met with severe force in the past. That resistance is being seen in Naypyitaw, whose population includes many civil servants and their families, could speak to the level of anger among people who had only begun to taste democracy in recent years after five decades of military rule..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-08
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Title: U.K. Sees Myanmar Coup as Irreversible, Risk of Violence Rising
Description: "The military coup in Myanmar has gone past the point of no return, according to a confidential U.K. foreign office assessment, in a sign that major democracies expect to have limited ability to influence the events unfolding inside the country. The latest in global politics Get insight from reporters around the world in the Balance of Power newsletter. Email Enter your email Bloomberg may send me offers and promotions. Sign Up By submitting my information, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. The bleak view last week from a senior British diplomat concludes the coup is irreversible, and that army chief Min Aung Hlaing will seek to crush ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party in order to install himself as president. The assessment, the broad outlines of which were shared with Bloomberg News, also cites the risk that anti-coup protests -- with tens of thousands subsequently demonstrating on the weekend -- could turn bloody. With Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint in detention and facing criminal charges, the British conclusion is that a leaderless National League for Democracy will likely start to fracture. That will allow the military, which seized power on Feb. 1, to dominate in an election it has promised to hold following a one-year state of emergency. Nations including the U.K., the U.S. and Australia have condemned the coup, which followed Suu Kyi’s landslide win in an election in November that outside observers deem to have been largely free and fair. Some countries have raised the prospect of renewed sanctions on Myanmar, which has made only tentative efforts in recent years to open up its economy to outside investment...."
Source/publisher: "Bloomberg News" (New York)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-08
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Title: Internet access Internet access restored as Myanmar coup protests grow
Description: " As enthusiastic crowds of tens of thousands marched through the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city on Sunday to protest last week’s coup ousting Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, their spirits were lifted by the return of internet services that had been blocked a day earlier. Separate protests that began in various parts of Yangon converged at Sule Pagoda, situated in the center of a roundabout in the city’s downtown area. Protesters chanted “Long live Mother Suu” and “Down with military dictatorship.” Protesters in other parts of the country echoed their calls. Authorities had cut access to the internet as the protests grew Saturday, fanning fears of a complete information blackout. On Sunday afternoon, however, internet users in Yangon reported that data access on their mobile phones had suddenly been restored. RELATED COVERAGE – UN chief: UN will seek to unite world, reverse Myanmar coup – Military coup yet another blow for Myanmar's sagging economy – Myanmar's Suu Kyi detained again — without her old support The demonstrators are seeking to roll back last Monday’s seizure of power by the military and demanding the release from detention of Suu Kyi, the country’s ousted leader, and other top figures from her National League for Democracy party. The military has accused Suu Kyi’s government of failing to act on its complaints that last November’s election was marred by fraud, though the election commission said it had found no evidence to support the claims. The growing protests are a sharp reminder of the long and bloody struggle for democracy in a country that the military ruled directly for more than five decades before loosening its grip in 2012. Suu Kyi’s government, which won a landslide election in 2015, was the first led by civilians in decades, though it faced a number of curbs to its power under a military-drafted constitution..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Myanmar coup: How citizens are protesting through art
Sub-title: An atmosphere of fear and anger spread across Myanmar this week as millions of people awoke to find out the military had taken control, ousting the elected government.
Description: "But how do you fight back in a country where protests have been violently supressed before? For some, it has meant putting pen to paper and taking the battle online. Clanging pots and pans One Burmese artist, known only by the pseudonym Pen Holder, says they believed it was their "duty" to protest through art. "We will continue to oppose the government until the real leader of our people is restored," they said. Their drawing depicts an entire Burmese family - from young to old - all gathering together to bang pots and pans in protest, a scene seen across the country in the evenings since the coup. The picture has since gone viral, shared thousands of times by those on social media. "Our people have no weapons - we aren't able to access this. Instead, as an artist, I fight with a pen," they told the BBC. "I am scared. But I also don't want to regret what I didn't do. I want to fight against this."...."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Myanmar coup: Tens of thousands join largest protests since 2007
Sub-title: Myanmar has seen its largest protests in more than a decade, as tens of thousands of people rallied against the military coup and demanded the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Description: ""We don't want military dictatorship. We want democracy," the crowds chanted in the main city, Yangon. Rallies were held in more than a dozen other cities. Internet access has now been restored after a day-long blackout. The army has not yet commented on the growing opposition to Monday's coup. The military seized power after claiming, without evidence, that the November election was fraudulent. The rulers declared a year-long state of emergency and have been hunkered down in the capital, Nay Pyi Daw. Ms Suu Kyi and senior leaders of her National League for Democracy Party (NLD), including President Win Myint, have been put under house arrest. Citizens protest through art What this means for Aung San Suu Kyi How Facebook became Myanmar's 'digital tea shop' In Yangon, people wore red shirts and held red balloons, the colour of Ms Suu Kyi's party, while cars and buses slowed to sound their horns in support. Many flashed the three-finger salute, a symbol of defiance against authoritarianism in the region. The internet shutdown imposed by the military failed to curb the protesters. "Respect our vote," read one banner, in reference to the NLD's landslide win in November. Sunday's protests in Yangon were the biggest since the so-called Saffron Revolution in 2007, when thousands of the country's monks rose up against the military regime. Crowds marched towards the Sule Pagoda in the city centre while police vehicles and officers in riot gear were stationed near Yangon University. There were no immediate reports of violence. "First, we don't want to go back to military rule. We don't want to live in fear. Secondly, we want Mother Su to be freed from being under detention unjustly," a protester told the BBC. "And third, we want to root out the system where soldiers take civilian administrative positions." Another demonstrator said that Ms Suu Kyi was "our true leader", adding: "She is our only hope for our democracy, if she died or something happened to her, what is our future? We really need her back." A third said: "This protest is not the end. We'll group... [every day] until we're free from the dictatorship." Smaller protests were also held in Nay Pyi Daw, Mawlamine and Mandalay, the country's second-largest city. In the town of Myawaddy, there were reports of shots being fired, but no immediate reports of any injuries. According to some local media outlets, police had used rubber bullets to break up a rally..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Myanmar: Respect right to peaceful assembly, UN human rights office says
Sub-title: The United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) on Saturday called on the security forces in Myanmar to ensure that people’s right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and that demonstrations are not subjected to reprisals.
Description: "According to media reports, many people took to the streets in Myanmar’s commercial hub, Yangon, on Saturday to protest the military’s takeover and the arrest of several elected leaders and politicians, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. “Myanmar’s military and police must ensure the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and demonstrators are not subjected to reprisals”, OHCHR said in a Tweet on Saturday. Earlier in the week, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet raised concerns of a “violent crackdown on dissenting voices” in Myanmar and reminded the military leadership of the country’s obligations under international human rights law to ensure people’s rights are protected and to refrain from using unnecessary or excessive force. The military takeover followed escalating tensions between the military and the government after the November 2020 elections, which was won by Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD). The polls were only the second democratic elections in Myanmar since the end of nearly five decades of military rule. The first elections, in 2015, were also won by NLD. Internet and social media blocked OHCHR also called on the authorities to restore internet and communication services. “Internet and communication services must be fully restored to ensure freedom of expression and access to information”, the office said. Myanmar’s military reportedly blocked access to Facebook on Thursday, for several days. The social media platform is said to be used by around half of the country’s population, for access to information. On Friday, Twitter and Instagram platforms were added to the list of services that could not be accessed in Myanmar. Media reports also said that the mobile service provider in Myanmar was ordered to temporarily shut down data networks, effectively cutting off internet on mobile devices. Voice and SMS services are reported to be operational..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Myanmar: tens of thousands march against military coup for second day
Sub-title: Large demonstration across country despite junta blocking internet access and restricting phone lines
Description: "Demonstrators in Myanmar have vowed to continue their protests until their elected leaders are released and democracy returns as tens of thousands of people poured on to the streets of towns and cities across the country for a second day. Large crowds gathered in the main city Yangon and elsewhere, condemning the military for ousting the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup. “Today is about Myanmar’s democracy,” said protestor Myint Oo, 23. “Our hero Aung San Suu Kyi and our president U Win Myint must be freed.” “There may be soldiers tomorrow, but I am not afraid,” he said, adding that he would return to the streets. Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint have not been seen in public since they were detained in early morning raids last Monday. Their party, National League for Democracy (NLD), won a thumping election victory in November but the military has refused to accept the results of the vote. It has alleged widespread electoral fraud, a claim observers have rejected. The junta blocked internet access for about 24 hours from Saturday afternoon in an attempt to stop protests, but large crowds continued to join the biggest demonstrations in the country since the 2007 Saffron Revolution, when thousands of Buddhist monks marched against military rule. By mid-morning on Sunday, protesters had taken to the streets in Yangon, as well as in the city of Mandalay in central Myanmar and the coastal town of Mawlamyine in the south-east. Hundreds more had camped overnight outside a police station in the town of Payathonzu in Karen state, where local NLD politicians were reportedly arrested. They remained outside on Sunday morning, singing pro-democracy songs, Reuters reported..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Myanmar’s military built a new capital as a haven for power. Other countries have tried that, too.
Description: "A country’s capital, its seat of power, is typically the center for showdowns during times of political unrest. But not in Myanmar. All was reportedly quiet Saturday in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s purpose-built capital unveiled in 2005. Meanwhile, 225 miles to the south in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city and former capital, protesters marched in the first major street demonstrations since the military seized power Feb. 1 and jailed leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The roster of capitals-by-design dots the globe: from Canberra in Australia to Brazil’s Brasília. Even Washington was laid out for the job of governing. Yet there are other countries — including Egypt, Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Equatorial Guinea — that have joined Myanmar to build new capitals in part to shield their leadership. Naypyidaw is infamous for its eerily empty 20-lane highways and high-end hotels, golf courses and spas in a city about six times the territory of New York City in one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries, according to the Guardian. The British paper summarized it as a “monument to hierarchy.” Naypyidaw was the brainchild of Myanmar’s former military leader, Than Shwe, who rescinded power in 2011 when the country began a transition to democracy. Shwe was never publicly challenged when he said Myanmar needed a new capital because of Yangon’s heavy traffic and population density. But analysts have described the decision as motivated by a desire to secure the military’s seat of power from any threat of protests or invasions..."
Source/publisher: "The Washington Post" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Why the generals really took back power in Myanmar
Description: "A strangely familiar sight dominated the front pages of Myanmar's state-owned newspaper this week: photos of men in green military uniforms sitting in seats of power. It was as if time had rewound a decade. "The Global New Light of Myanmar" has long been considered the mouthpiece for whoever is running the country, its pages dedicated to government propaganda and stiff images of officials on mundane visits to agricultural or development projects. From 1962 until 2011, successive military regimes ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, with an iron fist -- asserting their absolute power over the people through fear and brutality. But six years ago, there was hope of change when Aung San Suu Kyi -- a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former political prisoner -- formed the first civilian government with her National League for Democracy Party (NLD) after winning a landslide in elections. Soldiers stand guard along a blockaded road near Myanmar's Parliament in Naypyidaw on February 2, 2021. That all changed Monday, when the military seized power in a coup, arrested 75-year-old Suu Kyi, cut internet services and took news channels off the air. A presenter on the military-owned news channel announced that the 64-year-old commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing was now running the country. "Senior General makes speech at government meeting" was Wednesday's "New Light" headline, a sign that Myanmar is now back under military rule, at least for the next 12 months. Devastated residents in the country's biggest city, Yangon, said history was repeating itself. With many still bearing the mental and physical scars of the past, they expressed fears that the intervening years were all for nothing. Myanmar has changed markedly in the years since the military last ruled, with more social freedoms, foreign investment and a growing middle class. For example, SIM cards that used to cost $1,000 a decade ago are now cheap and ubiquitous, and the population has quickly moved online with social media sites like Facebook synonymous with the internet. While deep economic and inequality issues, conflict, and ethnic strife remain, Myanmar is a different place today than it was 10 or 20 years ago, especially in the major cities. But the imperfect transition was not working for everyone..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-07
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Title: Myanmar coup: Internet shutdown as crowds protest against military
Description: "A near-total internet blackout is in effect with connectivity falling to 16% of ordinary levels, said the monitoring group NetBlocks Internet Observatory. In the main city, Yangon, crowds chanted "Military dictator, fail, fail; Democracy, win, win". Police with riot shields have blocked the main roads into the city centre. The internet shutdown happened hours after the military had blocked access to Twitter and Instagram to stop people mobilising for protests. Facebook had been banned a day earlier. Many users had evaded the restrictions on social media by using virtual private networks (VPNs) but the more general blackout severely disrupted that. How the military disrupted Myanmar's internet In pictures: Myanmar protests defy military coup What Myanmar's coup means for Aung San Suu Kyi Civil society organisations urged internet providers and mobile networks to challenge the blackout order, Reuters news agency reported. Human rights group Amnesty International called the shutdown "heinous and reckless" and warned it could put the people of Myanmar at risk of human rights violations. The military has not commented. It temporarily blocked access to the internet following the coup on 1 February..."
Source/publisher: "BBC News" (London)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-06
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Title: Myanmar junta blocks internet access as coup protests expand
Description: "Myanmar’s new military authorities appeared to have cut most access to the Internet on Saturday as they faced a rising tide of protest over their coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected civilian government. Numerous internet users noted a slow disappearance of data services, especially from mobile service providers, that accelerated sharply late Saturday morning. Broadband connection also later failed, while there were mixed reports on whether landline telephone service and mobile voice connections were still working. Netblocks, a London-based service that tracks internet disruptions and shutdowns, said Saturday afternoon that “a near-total internet shutdown is now in effect” in Myanmar, with connectivity falling to just 16% of normal levels. The broad outage followed Friday’s military order to block Twitter and Instagram because some people were trying to use the platforms to spread what authorities deemed fake news. Facebook had already been blocked earlier in the week — though not completely effectively. The communication blockages are a stark reminder of the progress Myanmar is in danger of losing after Monday’s coup plunged the nation back under direct military rule after a nearly decade-long move toward greater openness and democracy. During Myanmar’s previous five decades of military rule, the country was internationally isolated and communication with the outside world strictly controlled. Suu Kyi’s five years as leader since 2015 had been Myanmar’s most democratic period despite the military retaining broad powers over the government, the continued use of repressive colonial-era laws and the persecution of minority Rohingya Muslims. The blockages are also adding greater urgency to efforts to resist the coup, with Saturday seeing some of the largest street protests against the takeover. In one of the bigger ones, about 1,000 protesters — factory workers and students prominent among them — marched down a main street in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, and were met by more than 100 police in riot gear. Members of the crowd shouted “down with dictatorship” and other slogans. They marched with their hands in the air, formed into three-fingered salutes, a symbol of defiance adopted from protesters in neighboring Thailand, who borrowed the gesture from the “Hunger Games” movie franchise. The demonstration ended peacefully with no clashes reported. It dispersed around the time communications were cut, and it was unclear if the marchers later regrouped..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-06
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Title: Myanmar: End Crackdown on Media, Communications
Description: "Myanmar’s military junta should immediately lift internet restrictions, release all persons detained since the February 1, 2021 coup, and end harassment and threatened arrests of journalists, Human Rights Watch said today. Journalists in Myanmar have reported credible threats of an imminent, broader-sweeping crackdown on media workers, and several have told Human Rights Watch that they fear for their safety. “A news and information blackout by the coup leaders can’t hide their politically motivated arrests and other abuses,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The military should immediately release those arrested, restore access to online information, and protect the right to free expression.” On February 4, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) in Myanmar said that in addition to 133 officials and lawmakers whom the military detained at the onset of the coup, 14 activists had also been detained. On the morning of February 4, the authorities arrested 4 among about 20 protesters who had gathered outside the University of Medicine in Mandalay to oppose the coup. It is not yet known if those arrested have been charged. On February 5, the authorities detained Aung San Suu Kyi’s senior aide, Win Htein, 79, in Mayangone township. He is facing charges for his comments denouncing the coup. Human Rights Watch called for the lifting of the February 3 and February 5 orders issued by the Transport and Communications Ministry, now fully under the control of the military, directing the blocking of social media services. The government said it was barring the use of the service because people were using it to “trouble the country’s stability.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-06
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Title: Myanmar: New internet blackout “heinous and reckless”
Description: "On 6 February, the Myanmar military reportedly ordered telecommunications companies in the country to fully shut down internet and 4G services. According to information received by Amnesty International, the effective blackout will be in operation until Monday 8 February. An earlier order, on 5 February, instructed telecommunications companies to block access to Twitter and Instagram. On 4 February, the military had already announced that they were ordering telecoms operators to block access to Facebook until 7 February. As the 1 February military coup was underway, internet and phone outages were reported in several parts of the country, including in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, the largest city, Yangon, as well as Shan and Kachin States and the Mandalay and Sagaing regions. Access was later reestablished. There have also been mobile internet restrictions in conflict-affected areas of Rakhine and Chin States in the country for more than a year. 4G internet access in those areas was reportedly restored late in the evening on 2 February 2021. Such restrictions pose a real danger to at-risk civilian populations, especially when access to information is so vital during the COVID-19 pandemic – and even more so when the situation on the ground is so tense amid the coup, and in conflict-affected areas..."
Source/publisher: "Amnesty International" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-06
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Title: Myanmar: tens of thousands protest against coup despite internet blackout
Sub-title: Demonstrators in standoff with police amid demands for release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi
Description: "Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Myanmar on Saturday in the first major demonstration since the military seized power, despite a nationwide internet blackout imposed to stifle dissent. In the main city Yangon, protesters chanted “down with the military dictatorship” and carried images of the ousted leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint, whose party won a landslide election in November. The military detained both in raids early on Monday morning and they have not been seen in public since. “Tell the world what has happened here,” one of the protesters said. “The world needs to know.” The military shut down the internet across the country in an attempt to stop the protests. The NetBlocks Internet Observatory reported that connectivity had fallen to 16% of ordinary levels by early afternoon. The military had already blocked Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Myanmar’s military has shown that it believes it can “shut the world out and do whatever it wants,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division. “They’re going to pull down the shutters and intimidate, arrest and abuse everybody who is daring to speak up. The question is how long people are able to do this and whether there will be any splits in ranks within the police or the military,” he said. Throughout Saturday, the state-run broadcaster MRTV played scenes praising the military, according to Reuters. Despite the internet blackout, several thousand demonstrators gathered near Yangon University. Many wore red headbands, the colour of the National League for Democracy, and raised their hands in a three-finger salute, a gesture also used by Thai pro-democracy protesters which symbolises resistance..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-06
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Title: Protests break out in Myanmar in defiance of military coup
Description: "An Australian adviser to Myanmar's recently deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained on Saturday as pro-democracy protests broke out in the country's largest city on Saturday. Thousands of people took to the streets of Yangon in the first major organized demonstration since the military seized power in a coup earlier this week. The crowd, many of whom could be seen waiving flags and holding banners, called for the military to release Suu Kyi, and other democratically-elected lawmakers, who were detained in pre-dawn raids Monday. Chants of "We demand democracy" could be heard coming from the crowd as they marched close to downtown Yangon, prompting the government to impose an internet blackout. Dozens of police, some in riot gear, had initially attempted to block the protest route, forcing the crowd to change direction. During the earlier large-scale march, passers-by could be seen giving the three-finger salute of opposition to army rule, in apparent solidarity with those demonstrating. Others were seen applauding and handing out water to both protesters and police in what one witness described as a way of defusing tension. Witnesses described the crowd as expanding in size, before appearing to disperse after several hours. But a number of smaller, scattered protests remained ongoing including one at Yangon University, where several hundred mostly young people gathered and continued to chant..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-06
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Title: UN chief backs Myanmar people's right to peaceful protest in face of military coup
Description: "United Nations chief Antonio Guterres backed the right of the Myanmar people to peacefully express their rejection of this week's military takeover that displaced the country's elected civilian government. "Coups are not acceptable in the modern world and I reject and condemn the coup," said the UN Secretary-General on Saturday (Feb 6) in an exclusive interview with CNA. "I would strongly recommend the people of Myanmar to express their grievances but to do so in a peaceful way." Mr Guterres' comments come in the wake of Monday's move during which Myanmar’s military declared a state of emergency and seized power. In an early morning raid, the army detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint, and a raft of parliamentarians and activists. Social media posts from Myanmar show a growing civil disobedience movement from people banging pots and pans every night, to reports of medical staff going on strike. "BASIC HUMAN RIGHT" Mr Guterres said the freedom of expression is a basic human right and urged the military "not to have any violence in relation to the people of Myanmar"..."
Source/publisher: "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-06
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Title: Is Your Business Funding Myanmar Military Abuses?
Sub-title: Even Before Coup, Companies Should Have Cut Ties to Armed Forces
Description: "The military coup in Myanmar this week should sound alarm bells in corporate boardrooms around the world. Since Myanmar’s transition from decades of military dictatorship to a civilian government began in 2011, transnational businesses have cautiously reentered the country. But the coup highlights the question company directors should already have been asking: “Is our company directly or indirectly funding the Myanmar military?” The human rights, reputational, and legal risks of continuing to do business with Myanmar’s military are immense. The Tatmadaw, as it is known, has been accused of genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya Muslims, and war crimes against other ethnic minorities. And now it has overthrown a civilian government that won a massive re- election, with over 80 percent of the vote, in November 2020. Companies doing business in Myanmar have long had access to credible information about the military’s grave abuses and corruption. A 2019 United Nations report found that companies with commercial ties to the Myanmar’s military and its conglomerates, Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), “are contributing to supporting the Tatmadaw’s financial capacity.” The report said these companies are at “high risk of contributing to or being linked to, violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.” The UN team’s recommendation was clear: companies operating or investing in Myanmar should not do business with “the security forces of Myanmar, in particular the Tatmadaw, or any enterprise owned or controlled by them, including subsidiaries, or their individual members.”..."
Source/publisher: "Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-05
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Title: Myanmar cuts Facebook access as military tightens grip following coup
Description: "Internet and news services continued to be disrupted across Myanmar on Thursday, as the country's military sought to secure their grip on power after deposing the democratically-elected government earlier this week. Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's de facto leader, along with President Win Myint and dozens of other senior figures in their National League for Democracy (NLD) were detained in pre-dawn raids Monday. Hours later, the military declared that power had been handed to commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing, in response to unfounded allegations of election fraud. A state of emergency was declared for one year. Late Wednesday, an arrest warrant was issued for Suu Kyi over unspecified "import and export" offenses, while Win Myint was remanded in custody under the country's Disaster Management Law, according to an NLD spokesman. While the dramatic overthrow of Suu Kyi's government attracted international attention, continued disruptions to internet access and communications mean that many in Myanmar may still be unclear about what is taking place. Facebook, by far the largest online platform in the country, confirmed to CNN that its services were "currently disrupted for some people" as of Thursday morning, as independent monitors recorded widespread filtering of Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms, even as basic internet access was returning in some areas. Limited access to news and internet could affect the ability of people to get information or organize any response via social media. At one point on Monday, the only operational TV channel was the Myanmar military-owned television network Myawaddy TV. By Wednesday, some channels, such as DVB TV, were still off the air..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-05
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Title: Biden administration designates Myanmar military takeover as a coup
Description: "The Biden administration has formally determined that the military takeover in Myanmar constitutes a coup d'état, a designation that requires the US to cut its foreign assistance to the country. "After careful review of the facts and circumstances, we have assessed that Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's ruling party, and Win Myint, the duly elected head of government, were deposed in a military coup on February 1," a State Department official said Tuesday, using another name for Myanmar. "We continue to call on the Burmese military leadership to release them and all other detained civil society and political leaders immediately and unconditionally." The United States provides "very little" foreign assistance directly to Myanmar's government and "the government of Burma, including the Burmese military, is already subject to a number of foreign assistance restrictions, including statutory restrictions on military assistance, due to its human rights record." The State Department official, speaking on a call with reporters, said the administration "will undertake a broader review of our assistance programs to ensure they align with recent events." That review will begin "immediately" and will "look at any programs that indirectly benefit the military or individual low level officers." "At the same time, we will continue programs that benefit the people of Burma directly, including humanitarian assistance and democracy support programs that benefit civil society. A democratic civilian led government has always been Burma's best opportunity to address the problems the country faces," the official said..."
Source/publisher: "CNN" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
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Title: Deep fears of violent crackdown in Myanmar, UN rights chief warns
Sub-title: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has voiced “deep fears” of a violent crackdown on dissenting voices in Myanmar, where the military assumed all powers and declared a state of emergency after overthrowing the civilian government and arresting top political leaders, on Monday.
Description: "“Given the security presence on the streets in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, as well as in other cities, there are deep fears of a violent crackdown on dissenting voices”, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said in a statement on Monday. “I remind the military leadership that Myanmar is bound by international human rights law, including to respect the right to peaceful assembly, and to refrain from using unnecessary or excessive force”, she added. High Comissioner Bachelet also called on the international community to “stand in solidarity with the people” of Myanmar at this time. She also urged all nations with influence to take steps “to prevent the crumbling of the fragile democratic and human rights gains made by Myanmar during its transition from military rule.”..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
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Title: Myanmar coup: health workers at 70 hospitals join civil disobedience campaign
Sub-title: Medical staff accuse military chiefs of prioritising their own interests above those of the public during the pandemic
Description: "Staff at dozens of hospitals across Myanmar stopped working on Wednesday as part of a growing civil disobedience campaign, one of the first organised acts of defiance against the military after it ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Health workers in 70 hospitals and medical departments in Naypyidaw, Yangon and other towns and cities said they would not work under the military regime, accusing the generals of placing their own priorities above those of ordinary people during the pandemic. “We refuse to obey any order from the illegitimate military regime who demonstrated they do not have any regards for our poor patients,” the organisers said. A Facebook page coordinating the campaign accumulated nearly 150,000 followers in just 24 hours. “They will not stop this movement until the elected government is restored,” said Kyaw, a surgeon at West Yangon general hospital who has gone on strike. “I am upset about being apart from the patients, but I have no regrets, knowing that I did my best to help fight the pandemic,” he said, adding that he had resigned from the government hospital were he worked. Doctors are instead treating patients in their homes and at private clincis. The All Burma Federation of Students Union has also urged other government workers to strike. There have been no reports of street demonstrations against the army, but anger is simmering among the public, who lived under repressive military regimesfor five decades. On Wednesday night, the clanging of pots and pans echoed through the main city of Yangon, as people took to their balconies in a symbolic protest against the military. On social media, many adopted red profile pictures to signal their loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent nearly 15 years in detention as she campaigned against military rule before being released in 2010. Within Myanmar, she is widely revered as a heroine of democracy, despite international condemnation over her treatment of the Rohingya..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
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Title: Security Council fails to agree statement condemning Myanmar coup
Sub-title: Diplomats say discussions will continue with China and Russia asking for ‘more time’
Description: "The UN Security Council has failed to agree on a joint statement condemning Monday’s coup in Myanmar, after a two hour long emergency meeting failed to secure the support of China, a key Myanmar ally and a veto-holding permanent member of the council. The meeting, which was held virtually, followed the military’s detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other top politicians in a series of early morning raids on Monday, after which armed forces chief Min Aung Hlaing assumed power. The 15-member council was considering a UK-drafted statement that the United Nations’ envoy on Myanmar told diplomats should “collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy” in the country. “I strongly condemn the recent steps taken by the military and urge all of you to collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar,” Christine Schraner Burgener told the council, according to her prepared remarks. The military has said its coup was constitutional and promised to hold new elections, claiming last November’s poll was fraudulent without evidence. A state of emergency will remain in force for one year..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
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Title: Security Council unity ‘crucial’ to support democracy in Myanmar
Sub-title: The UN Special Envoy on Myanmar appealed on Tuesday for the Security Council to unite in support of democracy in the country in the wake of the recent power grab by the military and the declaration of a one-year state of emergency.
Description: "Christine Schraner Burgener addressed ambassadors during a closed meeting held the day after Myanmar’s military seized power and detained top political leaders and activists, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. “More than ever, this Council’s unity is crucial”, she said, according to remarks shared afterwards. “I strongly condemn the recent steps taken by the military and urge all of you to collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar.” ‘Surprising and shocking’ The crisis stems from elections held in November, marking the second democratic elections in Myanmar since the end of military rule a decade ago. Ms. Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), scored a landslide victory. The military and some political parties claimed the vote was fraudulent. Myanmar’s Supreme Court was scheduled to pronounce this month on its jurisdiction over complaints of alleged election-related violations. “We had earlier encouraged all electoral disputes should be resolved through established legal mechanisms”, Ms. Schraner Burgener said. “There appeared to be a commitment on the part of the military to safeguard the rule of law. So, the turn of events was surprising and shocking.” Release leaders The UN envoy underlined the NLD’s victory at the polls. The party won more than 82 per cent of seats, which “provided a strong renewed mandate to the NLD, reflecting the clear will of the people of Myanmar to continue on the hard-won path of democratic reform.” She called for the state of emergency to be repealed and for the detained leaders to be released, while the post-electoral litigation process should resume “with full commitment from both sides”. The military’s proposal to hold elections again should be discouraged, she added. “It is important that we join our efforts in helping ensure the military respects the will of the people of Myanmar and adheres to democratic norms.” Fears of backsliding Following reports of violence, including against journalists, Ms. Schraner Burgener also urged the Council to ensure the protection of civilians and human rights..."
Source/publisher: UN News
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-03
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Title: Biden demands Myanmar military cede power, orders sanctions review
Description: "WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden called Monday (Feb 1) on Myanmar's military to relinquish power immediately and ordered a review to consider reimposing sanctions lifted due to the nation's transition to democracy. "The international community should come together in one voice to press the Burmese military to immediately relinquish the power they have seized," Biden said. "The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy," he said in a statement, using Myanmar's former name. "The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action." "The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack."..."
Source/publisher: Agence France-Presse (AFP) (France) via "CNA" ( Singapore)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-02
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Title: Myanmar’s military takes power in coup, detains Suu Kyi
Description: " Myanmar’s military staged a coup Monday and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — a sharp reversal of the significant, if uneven, progress toward democracy the Southeast Asian nation has made following five decades of military rule. An announcement read on military-owned Myawaddy TV said Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year. It said the seizure was necessary because the government had not acted on the military’s claims of fraud in November’s elections — in which Suu Kyi’s ruling party won a majority of the parliamentary seats up for grabs — and because it allowed the election to go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic. The takeover came the morning the country’s new parliamentary session was to begin and follows days of concern that a coup was coming. The military maintains its actions are legally justified — citing a section of the constitution it drafted that allows it to take control in times of national emergency — though Suu Kyi’s party spokesman as well as many international observers have said it amounts to a coup. It was a dramatic backslide for Myanmar, which was emerging from decades of strict military rule and international isolation that began in 1962. It was also a shocking fall from power for Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country toward democracy and then became its de facto leader after her National League for Democracy won elections in 2015..."
Source/publisher: "Associated Press" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2021-02-02
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Title: Myanmar’s newly elected parliament set to meet amid coup threats
Sub-title: Lawmakers to hold first meeting on Monday amid new threats of army takeover over alleged poll fraud.
Description: "Myanmar’s newly elected parliament is scheduled to meet for the first time on Monday against the backdrop of a threat by the military to stage a coup over unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in the November 2020 election. On Thursday, the military’s commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing plunged the country into its greatest political crisis since the transition to democracy began in 2008 by threatening to abolish the constitution. “The constitution is the Mother Law. We have to follow the constitution. If the law is not respected or followed, we must abolish it. Even if it is the constitution, we must abolish it,” he said in a speech quoted by the military’s Facebook page. After two days of uncertainty, the military released an official statement on Saturday, apparently backtracking. “The Tatmadaw will defend the 2008 Constitution and only act within the boundary of existing laws,” it said, accusing the media of taking Min Aung Hlaing’s comments out of context. The incident came after a months-long campaign to discredit the November election, despite no firm evidence of wrongdoing. The military’s electoral proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), has demanded a new election supervised by the military, filed nearly 200 complaints, and took the issue to the Supreme Court. Min Aung Hlaing’s comments sent shockwaves through Myanmar, which emerged only from decades of military dictatorship in 2010 and held just its second democratic election in November last year. In both 2015 and 2020, the National League of Democracy (NLD) won landslide victories that delivered it a clear majority in parliament, despite the military automatically receiving 25 percent of the available seats..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-31
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Title: Arakan National Party lawmakers set to run as independents because they’re ‘not allowed to resign’ from party
Sub-title: Unusual 2019 rule change means party won’t accept lawmakers’ resignations until after 2020 election, so they can’t join rival parties
Description: "Arakan National Party politicians who are not allowed to resign from the party because of an usual new rule will likely contest seats as independent candidates after receiving the blessing of the Union Election Commission. Commission member Thet Tun said earlier this month that party members who have not been allowed to resign would be breaking the law if they ran for a rival party. “However… running as an independent candidate to maintain their chances of being elected cannot be considered as an infringement,” he said, responding to a question from ANP lawmaker Ba Shein at a parliamentary meeting. Upper House representative Htoot May says she will run independently to contest the Rakhine Ethnic Affairs minister’s seat. “I’m a bit upset that the ANP isn’t letting me resign,” she told Myanmar Now. “This is a transition period when everyone should be negotiating and having discussions. The party is unable to do that internally. And the entire Rakhine public will be watching this,” she said. Nine lawmakers have applied to quit the ANP. They are: Dr Aye Maung, Kyaw Kyaw, who has since died, Khin Maung Latt, Htoot May, Wai Sein Aung, Aung Thaung Shwe, Kyaw Zaw Oo, Kyaw Lwin and Khin Maung Htay. Khin Maung Latt and Kyaw Zaw Oo also say they are likely to run independently. “From the Union Election Commission’s response to U Ba Shein’s question, it seems like we’re in a position to run,” Kyaw Zaw Oo said. The ANP is the biggest of the three main political parties in Rakhine. The Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), and the Arakan Front Party (AFP) were founded or relaunched by people who quit or were removed from the ANP. The ANP decided at a meeting in May 2019 that members who have applied for resignations will not be allowed to leave until the end of the current parliamentary term. Although Htoot May’s resignation was rejected, she rejoined the ALD, while other Hluttaw representatives are cooperating with the AFP. The ALD, which was the winning party in Rakhine in the 1990 general election, merged with the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party before the 2015 poll to form the Arakan National Party..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-25
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Title: Myanmar’s NLD Unveils Election Candidate Lineup With More Women, Muslims
Description: "The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) on Thursday unveiled its candidate list for the upcoming election. The lineup consists largely of the party’s sitting lawmakers and current chief ministers, but also includes more women than in 2015 and two Muslim candidates. Myanmar will hold a general election on Nov. 8. With less than three months to go before the election, the party announced its list of candidates on Thursday afternoon, right after finalizing its selections. Of the more than 1,000 candidates listed by the party, 80 percent are sitting lawmakers who won parliamentary seats in the previous general election held in 2015. The NLD won a sweeping victory in 2015, defeating the then ruling, military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and taking office in 2016. In a video message to the selected candidates, NLD Chairwoman Daw Aung San Suu Kyi acknowledged on Thursday that there were few new faces on the list of candidates. Based on the lessons it has learned since the 1990 election, she said, the party prioritized “loyalty” and “experience” when selecting candidates. “We look at the applicants’ loyalty to the party’s policies,” she said. “We pay special attention to those who will faithfully support the aspiration of democratic federalism and who will walk along with us [in the long term].” Party Vice Chairman Dr. Zaw Myint Maung said on Thursday that 20 percent of sitting NLD lawmakers who had performed poorly in Parliament and had not adhered strictly to party discipline and implementing party policies were excluded from the candidate list. All current state and regional chief ministers except Yangon’s U Phyo Min Thein were re-selected to run in the election. U Phyo Min Thein has previously said he won’t run in the election due to poor health..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-24
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Title: Myanmar pro-democracy forces form new parties as elections loom
Sub-title: Ex-NLD lawmaker criticizes Suu Kyi for lack of democracy within ruling party
Description: "Some lawmakers who have grown disgruntled with Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy are adding to Myanmar's political landscape in a way that could give the dominant party something to think about ahead of elections scheduled to take place on Nov. 8. The NLD maintains a lead over military-affiliated and small ethnic parties but now also has to worry about its left flank as some pro-democracy politicians splinter away. The NLD is led by State Counselor Suu Kyi, the country's de facto leader. Her party won 80% of the seats in the 2015 general election with a promise of breaking away from military rule. But Suu Kyi's clout has been partially diminished, although few people doubt the NLD will win most of the contested seats. Suu Kyi's waning influence is evidenced by the fact that the People's Pioneer Party, or the PPP, will participate in the general election. Among the PPP's three founders is Thet Thet Khine, a female entrepreneur, lower house lawmaker and formerly of the NLD. In an interview with Eleven Media in early July, Thet Thet Khine criticized Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders. "There is no democracy inside the party," she said. "It's leaders are not loyal to the democratic system." The PPP has been criticizing the NLD's handling of the government since it took power in 2015, including the slow pace of economic reforms and deteriorating press freedoms. The preelection registration period for new candidates began on Monday. Ko Ko Gyi, former leader of the 1988 democratic uprising, also known as the "8888 uprising," has established the People's Party. He could not win an endorsement from the NLD in 2015. Ex-general and former Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann, who had been close to Suu Kyi, has also set off on his own, having formed the Union Betterment Party. The new parties are small but could grab votes from the NLD in single-seat districts. In most constituencies, the NLD will be challenged by the military-affiliated Union Solidarity and Development Party, the country's largest opposition party, as well as several ethnic parties..."
Source/publisher: "Nikkei Asian Review" (Japan)
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-21
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Title: Election 2020: Arakan National Party says it will keep dominant position in Rakhine despite conflict, pandemic
Sub-title: The party won the third largest share of the national vote in 2015 and is confident Rakhine nationalist sentiment will secure similar results this year
Description: "The Arakan National Party (ANP) has said it is confident it will maintain its dominant position in Rakhine in this year’s general election despite the campaign challenges posed by conflict in the state and Covid-19 related restrictions. Aye Nu Sein, an ANP spokesperson, told Myanmar Now the party would be bolstered by widespread ethno-nationalism. “When the 2020 election takes place, our party is very hopeful that we’ll win in Rakhine as long as the Rakhine nationalism of the people doesn’t waver,” she said. The party enjoys widespread support in northern and mid-Rakhine, where the Rakhine language and culture is more prominent and many harbour grievances against the Bamar dominated central government and military. The National League for Democracy (NLD) holds most seats in southern Rakhine, which has closer cultural ties to central Myanmar. The election commission has announced that voting will take place on November 8. Rakhine’s political parties say they are concerned that the conflict and restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19 will hamper their campaigns. “People are fleeing their villages left and right in masses,” Aye Nu Sein said. “Their safety is compromised. Even in cities, people feel unsafe. This poses a lot of challenges for the campaigns,” Hla Myint, a spokesperson for the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), said the clashes in at least six townships in Rakhine meant it would be challenging to hold elections there. In the last election in 2015, the ANP won 22 out of 35 seats in Rakhine’s regional legislature. They also secured 22 seats in the national parliament: 10 in the lower house and 12 in the upper house..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-07
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Title: Myanmar’s upcoming general elections and the ethnic factor
Description: "Myanmar’s election commission announced last week that general elections would be held on 6 November 2020–––the third since political reforms were initiated in 2010. Over 90 political parties are likely to contest a total of 1,171 seats in both houses of union parliament and in the state/regional legislatures. Discussions on the upcoming election have so far focused on the two major political parties–––the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)–––around issues on whether the NLD would be able to retain power or if the military-backed USDP would be able to make a comeback. Even as the NLD and the USDP are likely to remain the two largest parties in post-November elections, there is a sense in some quarters that neither may win enough seats to form government and this may throw up opportunities for smaller political and ethnic parties to decide who forms the next government in Myanmar. Three factors are key for the smaller political and ethnic-based parties to turn the elections in their favour. First, this will be more a function of the performance of NLD and USDP. Second, emergence of new parties and alliances and how they will affect the performance of the two major parties and lastly, electoral strategies ethnic-based parties..."
Source/publisher: "Observer Research Foundation (ORF)" (India)
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-06
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Title: Myanmar announces constituencies for general election
Description: "Myanmar's Union Election Commission (UEC) has announced the constituencies for the 2020 general election. According to the announcement late Monday, there are 330 constituencies for the House of Representatives (Lower House), 168 constituencies for the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 644 constituencies for state or region parliaments and 29 constituencies for ethnic minority in state or region parliaments. The date of 2020 general election will be announced based on the control of the COVID-19 outbreak as Myanmar is trying to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19, UEC Chairman U Hla Thein told a meeting with the political parties. There are 97 registered political parties at present to run campaigns for parliamentary seats nationwide in the 2020 election. Myanmar's previous general election was held in November 2015, in which Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD) won the absolute majority of parliament and ran the government since April 2016. The five-year term of the incumbent NLD government will end in March 2021..."
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-02
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Title: Myanmar sets November 8 date for general election
Sub-title: The nationwide vote is seen as a test for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party National League for Democracy.
Description: "Myanmar will hold its next general election on November 8, the election commission has announced, in a vote seen as a test for the country's fledgeling democratic government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. In a statement on Wednesday, Hla Thein, chairman of the union election commission, said a "multi-party general election for the parliament" would be held on that day. The Myanmar Times said a total of 1,171 national, state and regional seats would be up for grabs in the election, with polling set to take place in all townships, including areas considered conflict zones and self-administered regions. Analysts see the polls as an important test of Myanmar's transition away from direct military rule. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, won power in a landslide in 2015 that ended decades of military rule. But her administration has come under pressure internationally over a military crackdown that drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh in 2017. She personally appeared at an international tribunal in The Hague to defend the army against the allegations of rape, arson and mass killing in the campaign, which rights groups have said was tantamount to genocide..."
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-02
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Title: 1171 seats up for grabs in Myanmar’s November elections
Sub-title: The Union Election Commission (UEC) on June 29 announced that 1171 national, state and regional seats would be up for grabs in the general elections scheduled for November
Description: "The UEC added that elections would be held in all townships, even those considered conflict zones and self-administered regions. It said 330 seats will be contested in the Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House) and 168 in the Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House), or 12 for each state and region. The polling body said that 644 regular seats and 29 for ethnic minorities would be contested in state and regional parliaments. Although the UEC has not announced the date of the elections, it said they would likely be held in November. Political analysts said that as the election date nears, the UEC will likely suspend voting in some constituencies in conflict zones. U Sai Nyunt Lwin, vice chair of the Shan National League for Democracy (SNLD), said, “In 2015, they announced (election suspensions) one month before the date." The UEC also has yet to form election commissions in self-administrative zones like Mine Lar and Wa regions, which are run by ethnic armed groups. There are also worries about the continued fighting between the Tatmadaw (military) and Arakan Army in Rahine and Chin states. The Tatmadaw is also fighting ethnic armed groups in Shan State, such as the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, Kachin Independent Army, and Restoration Council for Shan State. Rakhine and Shan are two of the biggest political territories in the country, where ethnic groups make up most of the population..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-01
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Title: What lies behind the NLD’s candidate controversy?
Sub-title: The National League for Democracy’s ostensibly bottom-up candidate selection process should not be mistaken for the real party decision-making ahead of this year’s election.
Description: "Political parties have begun making preparations for the general election planned for November, even though the Union Election Commission has yet to announce the election date and the deadline for submitting candidates’ names. As parties focus on candidate selection, there has been criticism of the process used by the ruling National League for Democracy. Many members and non-members of the party have sought to be selected as NLD candidates because, in many constituencies, this is considered a virtual guarantee of a parliamentary seat. The NLD plans to contest every constituency and is widely expected by political analysts to secure another victory, though opinions differ about the likely margin. In the 2015 general election, the NLD won 79 percent of the seats in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, meaning that for every 10 of the party’s candidates about eight were elected. Those wishing to vie under the NLD banner were asked to submit applications at township party offices in early June. Applications were then judged by NLD township executive committees, joined by five so-called town elders who the party had appointed to advise the process in each township. If consensus was not reached on a preferred nominee and a runner-up for each relevant seat in the Union and regional parliaments, they were chosen by secret ballot. This township-level process has already been completed, though the NLD leadership has not confirmed the final list of candidates..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-29
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Title: ‘Very few soldiers are happy in the Tatmadaw’ - Q&A with expelled major now vying for NLD candidacy
Description: "In 2014, a court-martial stripped former Tatmadaw major Kyaw Swar Win of his rank and sentenced him to two years in prison for supporting an amendment to the country’s 2008 military-drafted constitution. The amendment targeted article 436, which itself makes amending the constitution virtually impossible without unanimous military support in parliament. It was sponsored by the then-opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party. After his release in a July 2015 presidential pardon, Kyaw Swar Win tried running as an NLD candidate but missed the deadline to enter the race. He is trying again this year for a seat in the upper house. The incumbent NLD is yet to select candidates, but the 43-year-old former military engineer is hopeful. He’s happy to support the party even if he’s not chosen as a candidate, he told Myanmar Now, and he believes the military’s rank-and-file will too. Myanmar Now interviewed Kyaw Swar Win earlier in June in Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay region - the district he hopes to represent. MN: What was the charge you faced after signing the petition in support of amending article 436 of the constitution? KSW: Breach of military order, under section 41e of the 1959 Defence Services Act, which stipulates punishment for a soldier that “neglects to obey any general, local or other order.” … It doesn’t specify particular orders, just any orders in general that a soldier is expected to follow. [Kyaw Swar Win’s charge says he disobeyed an order to “safeguard the constitution.”] I was also charged under section 65. In the army, we call that amyinkat podma [arbitrary charge] - they can use it against you when they want to punish you..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-25
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Title: Shwe Mann’s party to spend billions of kyats on election
Sub-title: Union Betterment Party plans to stand over 900 candidates, former general says
Description: "The newly-formed party of former junta leader Shwe Mann will spend billions of kyat on this year’s general election and will contest every seat in the Union Parliament, the retired general has said. The Union Betterment Party will use funds collected from supporters when it was founded last year for a campaign to elect over 900 candidates at local and national level, he told an online press conference on Thursday. “I cannot tell the exact amount, but I suppose it will cost billions including election expenses and party registration fees,” he said. The party has opened more than 8,000 branches and local party offices across 255 townships, he added. The party is aiming to win between 40 and 50% of seats, including regional ones, this year, he said. He did not disclose which constituency he plans to represent in the election. Shwe Mann lost his independent bid for a seat on his hometown of Phyu in the 2015 general election after positioning himself as an across-the-aisle ally of Aung San Suu Kyi. The loss, he later wrote, meant he no longer needed to keep a pistol under his pillow, since his enemies were satisfied. Shwe Mann was ousted from his post as chairman of the Union Solidarity and Development Party in August 2015 after running afoul of top party officials and senior military figures..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-21
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Title: 30 political parties rap NLD use of ‘town elders’
Sub-title: Thirty political parties have asked to meet with the Union Election Commission to discuss the ruling National League for Democracy’s (NLD) use of the word “town elders,” which they say is misleading people.
Description: "The NLD has appointed a group of what it called “town elders” in every township to select its candidates for the November elections. In a statement released on June 16, the 30 political parties objected to the use of “town elders” and called on the NLD to stop using it. They also urged the UEC to order the NLD to stop using the term in election campaign materials. Among those that signed the statement were the opposition Union Solidarity Development Party, New National Democracy Party, National Unity Party (NUP), National Development Party, Democratic Party (Myanmar), and National Democratic Force. "They use ‘town elders’ to promote the party,” said U Thein Nyunt, chair of New National Democracy Party. The November polls will be a crucial test of the public’s trust and confidence in Daw Aung Suu Kyi and the NLD, which has ruled the country since its landslide electoral win in 2015, the first free elections in the country after more than a half-century of military rule. The State Counsellor and President U Win Myint will lead the NLD in this year’s political battle. Myanmar’s political scene burst into life last week after the UEC announced that the elections would proceed as scheduled in November despite the COVID-19 pandemic..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-18
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Title: Chief Minister of Myanmar’s Yangon Bows Out of 2020 Elections
Description: "The chief minister of Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, seen as a possible successor to Aung San Suu Kyi, told RFA on Monday that he will not contest elections in November because of a “health condition,” dismissing reports he had filed papers to run. Phyo Min Thein had been nominated by the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party to run again for his current Yangon regional parliamentary seat. He won the seat in the NLD’s landslide victory in the 2015 general elections, and serves as a local MP concurrently with his job as chief minister of Myanmar’s biggest city. “I have informed the party that I can no longer serve as an MP [member of parliament] due to my health condition, so I will not contest in the upcoming election,” Phyo Min Thein told RFA’s Myanmar Service during an exclusive interview. He said local media reports saying that he had submitted a candidate application were false. Phyo Min Thein, 51, who underwent heart surgery four years ago, did not elaborate on his health condition. “I will keep contributing to the party’s works and nation-building efforts,” he added. Phyo Min Thein emerged several years ago as a strong candidate to succeed State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi after impressing her and other top NLD officials with his willingness to take on tough infrastructure and transportation challenges in Yangon. The former Rangoon was the commercial and political hub of British Burma and the country’s capital until 2006. A former political prisoner like Aung San Suu Kyi and many of her followers in a decades-long struggle against military rule, Phyo Min Thein began his ascent in 2012, when he joined the then-opposition NLD and won a seat representing Yangon in a by-election..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-17
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Title: NLD Confident as Party Plans for Myanmar’s 2020 Election
Description: "Ye Ni: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, we’ll discuss how the National League for Democracy (NLD) will select candidates for the coming general election, the possible results of the election and what the NLD has achieved over the past five years. First NLD Vice-Chairman and Mandalay Region Chief Minister Dr. Zaw Myint Maung has joined me to discuss this. I’m The Irrawaddy Burmese editor Ye Ni. First of all, I would like to thank you for participating in The Irrawaddy’s Dateline program. Zaw Myint Maung: Yes. YN: First, I would like to ask about your health. Many are interested in your health status. In a recent interview, you said confidently that your health is good and you will continue to engage in politics. Will you run in the 2020 general election? ZMM: As you know, I am suffering from a certain type of leukemia. But, there are medical treatments available in foreign countries that can allow me to live with it like people can live with diabetes. It is no longer that life threatening. There are new remedies, so if I keep my immune system fit and avoid contracting other diseases, the treatment can extend my lifespan. But, I need to be on medication for around two years. I am fine for light activities, but have not yet fully recovered. [Doctors] said it will take three months for me to return to normal [after my most treatment in Bangkok]. It has been just a few weeks since then. But I feel like I am stronger, and can do light activities. I have joined dozens of video conferences during ongoing quarantine [for the coronavirus]. I am committed to politics. I have said [in an interview] in Yangon that I will continue to engage in politics, playing the role assigned to me. I don’t know how it was misunderstood that I would not contest in the coming election. The journey to democracy is not yet over. We have yet to work for democracy to develop and thrive in Myanmar. In the 2015 election, we performed the role we were assigned to play. We did not choose. The party leadership in consultation decided who should be part of the Union-level government and who should be part of the region and state governments. We will continue to take the roles assigned by the party leadership in 2020..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-13
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Title: Opposition leaders in Myanmar may take election challenge
Sub-title: Leaders of the main opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), who are former senior military officers, may contest the November elections, a party spokesman said.
Description: "U Thein Htun Oo, spokesperson of the USDP, said that while the party has not yet picked its candidates, there is a chance the party leaders would throw their hats in the ring. "It’s very likely,” he said, “but that's just my opinion.” On June 9, a spokesman of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) said State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint will join the party’s candidates in the elections. Many see the November vote as a referendum on the NLD’s performance over the past five years, and as a major test of the State Counsellor’s ability to lead her party to victory despite heavy criticism by the international community over her handling of the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State. Some foreign and local observers have said the NLD would be hampered by its poor handling of the economy. The 2015 elections were the first free elections in the country after more than half a century of military rule. The NLD won by a landslide, winning 390 seats in the Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House) and Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House), while the USDP won 117 seats. The USDP was set up by former military commander-in-chief and junta leader U Than Shwe to replace the discredited State Peace and Development Council. The council’s first secretary, U Thein Sein, led the USDP and was appointed president of the country in 2010. Thein Sein launched economic and political reforms that led to the 2015 elections. After its second-place finish in 2015, the party was overhauled and is now led by U Than Htay, a retired army brigadier general who was minister of Rail Transportation, minister of Energy and deputy minister of Energy in the U Thein Sein government. U Thein Tun Oo said that besides not yet choosing its candidates for November, the USDP has yet to decide which constituencies it will contest..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-11
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Title: NLD candidate selection begins for 2020 elections
Sub-title: New selection process begins at the township level but still gives final say to central executive committe
Description: "The National League for Democracy (NLD) will begin selecting parliamentary candidates for the 2020 general elections this week. In previous elections, NLD candidates were selected directly by the central executive committee. A new selection process will democratise decision making to an extent but still leave final say to the party’s central executive committee. Townships will choose five candidates from among their NLD supporters, NLD vice chairman Zaw Myint Maung said during a press conference streamed online from Nap Pyi Taw on May 31. Once five supporters are chosen in a given constituency, the township executive or campaign committee will select two of them as potential parliamentary candidates. These two candidates will be forwarded to state and regional NLD officials who will then review and rank the candidates as first and second choices. The ranked candidates will then be sent to the NLD party central executive committee before the end of the month, Zaw Myint Maung said. The central executive committee will then select a candidate among the two to represent the party in the general election. NLD Nay Pyi Taw district chairman Min Thu confirmed that instructions were sent to township offices on Tuesday. It is unclear at this point if the central executive committee will be able to veto the selections it receives, demand new candidates from its constituency or choose candidates from elsewhere..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-06-03
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Title: Elections on for 2020, says election commission
Sub-title: Some feel Covid-19 restrictions on gatherings will hurt smaller campaigns, entrench incumbent advantage
Description: "Union elections will take place in 2020, a Union Election Commission (UEC) spokesperson has said. Myint Naing told an MRTV interview on a May 4 broadcast that, despite concerns over the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, elections must be held this year. It is a divisive issue among Myanmar’s many political parties. Some say holding elections while large gatherings are banned will give the upper hand to the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), as smaller parties will have a tougher time getting their message out. The NLD government’s efforts to support out-of-work laborers during the Covid-19 pandemic can appear as its own form of campaigning, while out-of-power parties can do little campaigning of their own at the moment, said Thein Htun Oo, spokesperson for the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party. “The ruling party has a lot of advantages right now,” he told Myanmar Now. He declined to offer an alternate date for the elections, saying only that “public health should be the top priority.” Dr Myo Nyunt, an NLD central executive committee member, declined to weigh in but said his party will strictly follow the commission’s decision. Other party officials told Myanmar Now that, if elections do need to be delayed because of the pandemic, delays should not last more than a few months. “If the next government and parliament are not ready to assume office by the time the current term expires, there will be political instability” said Thet Thet Khine, a former NLD member who left the party and since become chairwoman of the People’s Pioneer Party..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-31
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Title: China flips the electoral script in Myanmar
Sub-title: Suu Kyi is now close to old adversary China while long-ruling military is skeptical of Beijing's intent ahead of pivotal polls
Description: "Elections are scheduled for November in Myanmar, and there is no indication so far that the polls will be postponed due to the Covid-19 crisis. Neither is there much doubt about the outcome. Most political observers believe that State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) will win again, though not in the same landslide fashion as in 2015 as recent by-elections show she and her party have lost significant support in ethnic areas. But the bigger electoral question is how her party’s delicate relationship with the autonomous military will play out and in that context how her government’s ties to its powerful northern neighbor China will be portrayed and potentially politicized on the campaign trail. An entirely new paradigm has emerged in Myanmar, one where Suu Kyi is now seen as a trusted ally of Beijing and the military as a nationalistic bulwark against China’s strong advances. That’s a significant reversal, one that could have implications for stability in the lead-up to polls. When Suu Kyi was under house arrest during military rule or active in non-parliamentary politics, China viewed the long-time pro-democracy icon with suspicion. That was at least in part because her late British husband, a Tibetologist, maintained ties with many Tibetans in exile..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-26
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Title: Myanmar Political Parties Want Say on 2020 Election Timing Amid Coronavirus Fight
Description: "Political parties in Myanmar have urged the Union Election Commission to consult them on whether to postpone the country’s 2020 general election due to the coronavirus pandemic, party officials said Tuesday. Their call came after election commissioner Myint Naing told state-run radio that the commission would hold the election this year as planned, according to a post on the commission’s Facebook page on Monday. The UEC is responsible for organizing and overseeing elections, and vetting parliamentary candidates and political parties in Myanmar. The exact date of the election has yet to be announced, but the commission has said the 2020 vote will be held in November, as it was in 2010 and 2015, despite concerns by the political parties that Myanmar should focus first on controlling the spread of the virus. UEC members have de-emphasized concerns that the COVID-9 pandemic could force the rescheduling of the vote and have noted that South Korea managed to hold a general election in April amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Others argue that Myanmar is not as developed as South Korea and does not have the same resources to control the spread of the virus. As of Tuesday, Myanmar reported 161 confirmed cases of the virus and six deaths. “In this period of the coronavirus pandemic, all political parties and other concerned organizations should decide whether the general elections should be held instead of the Union Election Commission deciding on its own,” said Ye Naing Aung, general secretary of the Peoples’ Party..."
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-06
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Title: Why the 2020 general election matters
Sub-title: A long history of military dictatorship and sham polls combined with tense relations between the National League for Democracy and the Tatmadaw make it essential a free and fair general election takes place later this year, despite the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Description: "MYANMAR is facing myriad problems: conflict in Rakhine State, the failure of the National League for Democracy to amend the 2008 Constitution in parliament; the exodus of more than half a million Muslims to Bangladesh; Myanmar being prosecuted at the United Nations’ International Court of Justice; deadlock in the peace process. And now we have the arrival of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, which is posing a threat to the whole world. At the same time, Myanmar’s Union Election Commission is working to hold a free and fair general election at the end of 2020. Given all that is going on in Myanmar and the world, why is it important to hold an election in Myanmar? And is it likely to be held? Myanmar has been under military dictatorship for most of its modern history and has had few free and fair elections. More often it has held elections that were just for show, to cement the power of the dictators. In 1988, a nationwide uprising of ordinary people demanding democracy was crushed by a military takeover. The generals who took power held a reasonably free and fair election in 1990, but they refused to transfer power after the NLD won in a landslide. Instead, the generals drew up a new constitution to preserve their grip on power. It was approved at a farcical referendum in 2008 and under this constitution they held an election in November 2010..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-05
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Title: Ethnic Wa vow to help in elections
Sub-title: The United Wa State Party (UWSP) will cooperate with the Union Election Commission (UEC) to ensure the success of the November elections in the four townships in the Wa self-administered division, a party spokesperson said.
Description: "A UEC delegation led by its chair, U Hla Thein, came to Panghsang, the capital of the Wa region in Shan State, to meet with Wa leaders on the elections last week, said U Nyi Rang, UWSP spokesperson. “In the poll, we will help the UEC, though we cannot say yet whether voting would be held in the four townships. We need to hold more talks,” he added. Of the six townships in the Wa region, four are controlled by the UWSP and two by the government. In the 2010 and 2015 general elections, the UEC did not hold voting in the Wa-controlled townships of Pangwaing, Mine Maw, Panghsang and Narhpan. U Hla Thein urged the leaders of the Wa state government to work together with the poll body in the 2020 elections. He talked about the right to vote and to elect poll representatives. The UWSP submitted eight demands to the UEC, but U Nyi Rang refused to provide details. Xiao Mingliang, vice chair of the UWSP, said the Wa government hopes Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would visit the Wa region, which has often invited the State Counsellor to visit..."
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2020-03-04
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Title: Military Proxy USDP Adds Leaders Ahead of Myanmar’s Election
Description: "The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has expanded its senior management in a move the party says will facilitate its preparations for the 2020 general election. The military proxy opposition party has appointed two vice-chairs and three additional members to its central executive committee, the party said at a press conference on Friday. “The election is drawing near, and as we need to campaign on a wide scale, we have reinforced with two vice-chairpersons,” said USDP spokesperson Dr. Nanda Hla Myint. The new vice-chairs are former national police chief U Khin Yi and former Minister of the President’s Office U Hla Tun. U Hla Tun facilitated the transfer of power from the previous government, led by the USDP, to the current National League for Democracy (NLD) government following the 2015 election. Dr. Nanda Hla Myint said the USDP has appointed U Hla Tun as vice-chair in the hope that he will facilitate the process again if the USDP wins the election. U Hla Tun is also a retired major general and served as an ordnance director before the USDP government leadership appointed him minister of the President’s Office. U Khin Yi was the chief of the Myanmar Police Force and is a retired brigadier general of the Myanmar military. He served as the Union minister for immigration and population in the USDP government..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-25
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Title: How Does the NLD’s Push to Amend Myanmar’s Constitution Differ From the USDP’s?
Description: "The current government, led by the National League for Democracy (NLD), is not the first to attempt to amend the undemocratic 2008 Constitution. In 2013, its predecessor, led by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), gave it a try. But the USDP’s two-year attempt—widely viewed as lacking the will for genuine reform—ultimately proved fruitless, failing to amend even a single article of the Constitution. Since it was launched early last year, the NLD’s push for constitutional reform has faced strong resistance from unelected military lawmakers and their allies in the USDP. Despite strong public support for charter change, the success of the NLD’s effort is far from guaranteed. The main hurdle for constitutional reform is the effective veto wielded by the military, for which the Constitution reserves 25 percent of Parliament seats. Under Article 436, proposed changes to the charter require the support of more than 75 percent of lawmakers, meaning no change is possible without military approval. Let’s look at the differences between the USDP and the NLD’s approaches to charter change. On July 25, 2013, the then-ruling USDP established a joint committee with 109 members from all parties in Parliament to examine the country’s Constitution and consider changes to it..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-15
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Title: Suu Kyi stirs ethnic pot ahead of Myanmar elections
Description: "In Taunggyi, the capital of Myanmar’s ethnically diverse Shan State, students, nurses and marching bands lined the streets to welcome State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on her way to to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of Union Day on February 12. This was the day, in 1947, that Suu Kyi’s father General Aung San signed the Panglong Agreement, a preliminary accord with several ethnic groups (but crucially, not all) that has since been viewed as a touchstone of betrayal among Myanmar’s minorities toward central government rule and its unmet promises of federalism. Since taking power in early 2016, Suu Kyi has reformulated Union Day and its associated Panglong “spirit” as a vehicle for uneven ethnic peace-building and unification based on ethnic Burman domination. At this year’s event, the government fused military-era propaganda with Suu Kyi’s iron-discipline homilies and vague appeals to peace, “genuine Democratic Federal Union” and protecting the youth from the evils of drugs, crucially “(t)o strive with the collective strength of all ethnic nationals for rule of law, a fair justice system and the security and safety of all citizens.” Suu Kyi’s concept of “unity”, it appears, is to celebrate ethnic diversity by commodifying and controlling it, not by seeing ethnic communities as equals or granting political concessions, economic equality and ending entrenched discrimination..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-13
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Title: Myanmar Election Commission Says No Campaigning, No Polls Near Military Barracks
Description: "Myanmar’s election authority has announced that political parties will continue to be barred from campaigning inside military cantonments ahead of this year’s election, and that —in a departure from previous elections—military personnel and their family members will have to cast their votes outside military barracks. Union Election Commission (UEC) spokesman U Myint Naing said at the commission’s press conference in Naypyitaw on Thursday that “it is still impossible to campaign inside cantonments” due to security reasons. He also reaffirmed that polling stations will not be operated inside military barracks in the November election. In October last year, the UEC submitted draft amendments to electoral bylaws to the Union Parliament. The commission proposed a provision to mandate that polling stations for military personnel and their family members be placed outside the barracks, for them “to be able to cast votes together with civilian voters and to be transparent, where candidates, observers and party representatives can freely enter and monitor.” Military spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy that electoral campaigning will not be allowed inside barracks due to the constitutional provision that civil servants must be free from party politics..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-08
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Title: Workers and Farmers to Run in Myanmar’s 2020 Election to Promote Rights
Description: "Workers and farmers say they will contest the 2020 general election as independent candidates in order to better promote and protect their rights. Ten civil society organizations, including the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM) and Myanmar Infrastructure, Craft and Service (MICS), as well as labor rights defenders held a press conference in Yangon on Wednesday to unveil the election campaign. The independent candidates will contest seats in both houses of the Union Parliament and in Hlaing Tharyar Township in the Yangon regional parliament. The township houses the largest industrial zone and migrant population in Myanmar, according to CTUM president U Maung Maung. The National League for Democracy had largely ignored the rights of farmers and workers in amending labor and farmland laws since taking office in 2016, said U Maung Maung. And lawmakers had not done enough to improve their constituencies, he said. “It is important that lawmakers take the lead role in improving their constituencies, bearing in mind the requirements of their constituents. Those who are committed to labor issues will contest the election,” he said..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-08
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Title: Cardinal Bo calls for voting rights for religious ahead of Myanmar’s elections
Sub-title: In a message ahead of Myanmar’s general election in 2020, Cardinal Bo reminds fellow citizens that voting is a sacred duty. While calling for defending democracy and human rights, he also addresses other challenges facing the nation.
Description: "Myanmar’s prominent Catholic Church leader has appealed to the government to scrap the constitutional provision which prohibits members of religious orders from voting in elections. Cardinal Charles Bo lamented Article 392(a) of the constitution that prohibits Buddhist monks and nuns, Catholic priests, nuns and religious, other Christian clergy, Muslim clerics and others from the right to vote. In a written appeal released on Thursday, Archbishop of Yangon appealed to the government of Myanmar to change. Voting, a “Sacred duty” “As a cardinal, I can make statements and speeches and encourage citizens to vote,” he said but pointed to the irony that he himself is “barred from voting”. “This is an extremely unusual arrangement. I am not aware of any other democracy in which this is a requirement,” he said. Cardinal Bo’s statement comes in view of the general elections, expected in late 2020, as the Southeast Asian nation is in transition to democracy after decades of military rule. Describing voting as “a sacred duty” and “a sacred pilgrimage of human dignity” of the people of Myanmar, he warned that “those who shirk this sacred responsibility do at their own peril”. For the people of Myanmar, he said, voting is “a sacred pilgrimage in this golden land to strengthen their human dignity and common good”. Cardinal Bo, who is also president of the Confederation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), said that as a religious leader, it was not his duty to identify parties or leaders to support..."
Source/publisher: "Vatican News"
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-07
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Title: Ethnic Voters Face Disenfranchisement in Myanmar's 2020 Election
Summary: "There are about 3 million migrant workers from Myanmar in Thailand, with perhaps an additional million dependent family members. Some 2 million of these people are officially registered with the...
Description: "There are about 3 million migrant workers from Myanmar in Thailand, with perhaps an additional million dependent family members. Some 2 million of these people are officially registered with the Thai authorities. A large proportion are from ethnic nationality communities, such as the Mon, Karen, Karenni and Shan, who have suffered disproportionately from decades of conflict and violence in Myanmar. In many cases, they fled to neighboring Thailand in desperation, because their livelihoods and basic security were threatened at home. In the 2015 elections, only 20,000 overseas Myanmar citizens voted—of whom 19,000 were living in Singapore; only 600 people voted in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, where there is a Myanmar consulate. Myanmar overseas workers were effectively disenfranchised. In 2015 this fact was little noted, amid the euphoria of a National League for Democracy (NLD) win after decades of military rule in Myanmar. In the interests of equity, and to ensure that the 2020 election results are deemed credible by minority communities, it is crucial that the forthcoming polls are seen to be free and fair. Therefore, the Union Election Commission (UEC) should establish procedures for overseas-based Myanmar citizens to vote. At a minimum, arrangements should be made for them to vote at Myanmar embassies abroad. In order that the elections are seen as just and inclusive, such an initiative should be broader and permit migrant workers to vote in or near their place of work, as it is expensive and potentially illegal and risky for migrant workers in Thailand (for example) to travel to Bangkok, if they are not based there..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-04
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Title: Rakhine is on a precipice
Summary: "Exactly a year earlier, Arakan Army soldiers had staged coordinated attacks on four police stations in northern Rakhine State, killing 13 officers. The attacks have precipitated bloody clashes, mass...
Sub-title: As Myanmar marked Independence Day on January 4 with formal ceremonies, a national holiday and street games, a very different anniversary passed almost without mention in the country’s west.
Description: "Exactly a year earlier, Arakan Army soldiers had staged coordinated attacks on four police stations in northern Rakhine State, killing 13 officers. The attacks have precipitated bloody clashes, mass displacement and human rights violations in Rakhine and neighbouring Chin State. More than 100 civilians have been killed and many more injured as a result of small arms fire, artillery barrages and landmines. The Rakhine Ethnics Committee, a local civil society group, estimates that around 100,000 people have been displaced. Official figures are less than half that, but even if the true figure is somewhere in the middle, it represents a significant and tragic toll. Rakhine was already reeling from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks in 2016-17 and the military’s subsequent crackdowns that sent almost 750,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. But the conflict with the Arakan Army has plunged the state into new depths of violence and chaos. The outlook is bleak. Despite early predictions that the Arakan Army would be unable to sustain its operations, it has proven remarkably resilient and the fighting continues to spread. Most recently, on Christmas Day, clashes were reported in Ann Township, a Tatmadaw stronghold and home of its Western Command. The AA appears to have no shortage of recruits, and continues to find ways to arm and supply its forces. Its success is built largely on strong popular support. The government and military have sought to undermine this through a range of harsh measures, including detaining those suspected of links to the AA, cutting supplies to camps for the internally displaced, shutting down mobile internet access and restricting the activities of civil society groups. Predictably, these seem to have had the opposite effect, by further antagonising civilians..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-10
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Title: Myanmar economy to grow in 2020 amidst elections concerns
Description: "ECONOMIC growth in Myanmar may be held back by uncertainty ahead of the 2020 elections, the International Monetary Fund revealed. Foreign direct investment inflows and project approvals, it warns, remain lower than in recent years because large projects have been completed and foreign investors remain cautious ahead of the polls scheduled next year. The IMF, after the annual Article IV consultations in the country, however, sees the economy continuing to grow steadily, according to The Myanmar Times. “For 2019-20, growth is expected to be broadly stable, with higher government spending largely offset by pre-election uncertainty and weaker private demand,” the fund said in a statement. It, however, reiterated warnings made last April that “risks are tilted to the downside” and cited concerns over fallout from the Rakhine crisis and weaknesses in the banking sector. "On the domestic front, growth could underperform if fiscal spending does not accelerate sufficiently. Delayed restructuring and recapitalisation of the banking system could increase systemic risks with large macro financial spillovers. "A deterioration of the security situation and continued humanitarian issues in Rakhine could weigh on sentiment,” the IMF said in the statement issued following a visit by its team of economists..."
Source/publisher: "New Straits Times" (Malaysia)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-08
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Title: Suu Kyi no shoo-in at Myanmar’s 2020 polls
Sub-title: 2020 elections will show how much damage has been done to leader’s reputation as a democratic reformer
Description: "A new huge billboard recently erected at a major intersection in Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon portrays the nation’s nominal leader with a message of support: “We stand with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.” Such billboards are not unique in Myanmar and appeared well before Suu Kyi headed to The Hague’s International Court of Justice in December to defend her nation against charges of genocide, a stand that was widely panned by foreign media but cheered by nationalist groups at home. But the new signboard’s existence and message are noteworthy all the same. “Five years ago, it would not have been necessary,” says a local community worker who requested anonymity. “Then everybody in Yangon supported her and no-one had to be reminded of that.”..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-04
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Title: Over 37 mln eligible voters estimated to take part in Myanmar's 2020 general election
Description: " Myanmar has compiled a fundamental list of eligible voters for next year's general election, with an estimated 37 million people to vote for the next government, the Union Election Commission told a press briefing on late Wednesday. Of the over 37 million eligible voters, over 17 million are male, while over 19 million are female, Commission Member U Myint Naing said. The list has not yet included military personnel and their family members as well as those in five townships in Wa Special Region. By the time the complete list is compiled, the number of eligible voters will increase by over 3 million, he said. With the date of the general election yet to be announced, the expenditure of a parliament candidate for election campaign is designated as previously as 10 million kyats (about 6,600 U.S. dollars), while 15 million kyats (10,000 dollars) are set for those ethnic candidates in remote ethnic areas..."
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-28
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Title: Elections obscure Myanmar’s economic outlook
Summary: "Myanmar-based executives and investors are bracing for a business slowdown in the run-up to next year’s general elections, as uncertainty rises over the Southeast Asian nation’s political and policy...
Sub-title: Businesses are bracing for a slowdown and possibly worse ahead of risk-laden 2020 polls
Description: "Myanmar-based executives and investors are bracing for a business slowdown in the run-up to next year’s general elections, as uncertainty rises over the Southeast Asian nation’s political and policy directions. The election, tentatively scheduled for November 2020, will essentially pit de facto national leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) against the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the country’s two major political parties. The NLD romped to victory in 2015 in the nation’s first competitive election in 25 years, a shift from quasi-military to quasi-democratic rule that many then hoped would fuel a foreign investment-led economic boom. But Suu Kyi’s ability and willingness to orchestrate that boom has been constrained by a power-sharing arrangement with the autonomous military, which controls the crucial defense, home affairs and border affairs ministries, as well as her singular focus on flagging peace process..."
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-26
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Title: NLD Picks Campaign Chiefs for Myanmar’s 2020 Election
Description: "The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) has named four senior members who will steer the party towards electoral victory in the 2020 general election, according to party spokesperson Dr. Myo Nyunt. The party’s election campaigns will be led by party Vice Chairman and Mandalay Region Chief Minister Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, Magwe Region Chief Minister Dr. Aung Moe Nyo and NLD Central Executive Committee secretaries U Nyan Win and U Han Tha Myint. “Facilitating the functions of the party and rallying public support on a wider scale will all contribute to the party’s electoral victories,” Dr. Myo Nyunt told The Irrawaddy. Dr. Aung Moe Nyo, previously a member of the Central Executive Committee, was promoted to third secretary of the committee on Oct. 29. Dr. Myo Nyunt said that the promotion was intended to answer widely asked questions about the hierarchy within the party regarding who would succeed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The NLD currently has no plans to change Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s position as party chairperson. “I have to try to the best of my ability to perform this duty,” said Dr. Aung Moe Nyo. “It is not about promotion, it is about greater responsibility.” According to Dr. Myo Nyunt, the NLD’s candidates for state and regional chief minister positions will include many incumbents, adding that the ministers’ five years of experience in the executive branch are an invaluable asset to the party..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-13
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Title: Govt announces three steps to advance peace process
Description: "State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has announced a three-step plan to reboot the peace process at an event marking the fourth anniversary of the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. The government signed the ceasefire with eight groups in October 2015 but the country’s most powerful non-state armies are still yet to ink the accord, leaving them on the fringes of the formal peace process. Since the National League for Democracy government took office, the government has signed the NCA with just two additional armed groups. It has also convened just three Union Peace Conferences, despite a requirement that they be held every six months. Addressing a ceremony in Nay Pyi Taw on October 28, Aung San Suu Kyi urged ethnic armed groups and stakeholders to cooperate to ensure that the government’s three proposed steps were successfully implemented. The steps are to continue holding the 21st Century Panglong Union Peace Conferences, to involve non-signatories of the NCA in political dialogue, and to ensure that the people are able to enjoy the fruits of peace. The first step includes three elements: to develop a framework agreement to guide implementation of the NCA, to reach agreement on more points of a future Union Peace Accord, and to develop a plan for continuing the peace process beyond the 2020 election..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-11
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Title: Proposal tabled for soldiers to vote outside of camps in Myanmar
Description: "CHANGES have been proposed to allow soldiers and their family members cast votes outside of military camps during elections in Myanmar. The proposal tabled by the Union Election Commission (UEC) would abolish military polling stations if passed by the Union Parliament, according to The Irrawaddy. The UEC sought polling stations to be set up outside military camps so that soldiers and their family members can cast votes with civilian voters. This aims to make the process more transparent as it allows for candidates, observers and party representatives to move freely and monitor at the polling stations. Concerns have been raised recently on election process in military camps, prompting the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) to oppose placing polling stations inside barracks ahead of the general election next year. Military spokesperson Major-General Tun Tun Nyi in response to the NLD’s objection had said members of the military and their families need to vote inside the barracks as they are busy to go outside. “We are on duty 24 hours per day. It is difficult for both military personnel and their family members to go vote outside,” he said in a military press conference in Naypyitaw last month. Since the 2010 general election, military personnel and their family members have voted in military compounds..."
Source/publisher: "New Straits Times" (Malaysia)
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-06
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Title: Aung San Suu Kyi Remarks on Myanmar Constitutional Reform Rankle Some Supporters
Description: "Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi met U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell on Tuesday in Naypyidaw to discuss continued American support for the country’s democratic transition, a visit that came as supporters in Myanmar questioned her commitment to pledged reforms that helped her win power in 2015. Despite U.S. concerns and efforts, analysts in Myanmar say State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has not made significant democratic progress in her three years in office as she must run her administration within the confines set out by the powerful military that directly ran the country from 1962-201. In an interview with Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review on Oct. 23, Aung San Suu Kyi said that Myanmar’s constitution drafted by a former military junta more than a decade ago must be changed in order for the Southeast Asian nation to achieve “complete democracy,” but that this would not occur before the next general election in late 2020..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-30
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Title: What Advice Do Myanmar’s Female MPs Have for Women Candidates in 2020?
Summary: "As Myanmar’s historic reform process continues to evolve, more women are needed in leadership roles of all kinds, including in parliaments. Despite their low numbers, the positive contributions of...
Description: "As Myanmar’s historic reform process continues to evolve, more women are needed in leadership roles of all kinds, including in parliaments. Despite their low numbers, the positive contributions of women MPs in both national and subnational parliaments have already earned the recognition of their constituents. With general elections approaching in 2020, it is time to ask if Myanmar’s political parties will nominate more women, and if so, will they be elected. Though candidate selection very much depends on decisions by party leaders, the good news is that female candidates will not have to make this journey alone. Myanmar now has a small corps of veteran female MPs who can give constructive guidance to women running for office. In early September 2019, The Asia Foundation and a local partner organization, Phan Tee Eain, convened the fourth nationwide Women MPs Forum in Nay Pyi Taw, with 58 women parliamentarians. These included nine MPs from the two houses of the national parliament, the Amyotha Hluttaw and Pyithu Hluttaw, and 49 MPs from parliaments in Kachin and Shan States and the regions of Yangon, Mandalay, Magwe, Sagaing, and Ayeyarwady. The forum was an opportunity to consider strategies to support female candidates in 2020. One key strategy that emerged from the discussions was to share their own experiences as woman MPs, so that female candidates will know what to expect and how to exploit their own unique strengths to win public office..."
Source/publisher: "The Asia Foundation" (USA)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-24
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Title: Govt: Union Peace Conference Session to Be Held Before 2020 Election
Description: "The fourth session of the Union Peace Conference, also known as the 21st Century Panglong Conference, will be held before Burma’s 2020 general election, the spokesperson for the President’s Office has said. “The government has proposed that the fourth Union Peace Conference be held early next year… the EAOs (ethnic armed organizations) have already agreed to it,” spokesperson Zaw Htay said to media outlets after an informal meeting with EAOs in Chiang Mai, Thailand on October 18. According to Zaw Htay, participants in the peace conference will discuss federal principles and the peace process post-2020. The proposal, he said, has three parts. “The first part is about federal structure—for example, we will try to get a common agreement on what kind of federal nation we want to build,” Zaw Htay explained. “In the second part, we will try to come to an agreement on federal principles. The third part is that we will try to get an agreement on how to move the peace process forward in the post-2020 election period.” He added that the 51 points regarding basic federal principles addressed in the last Union Peace Conference session would be combined with the points agreed upon in the fourth session, and then federal policy would be drawn up that reflects these points..."
Source/publisher: "Network Media Group" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-22
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Title: How Will the 2020 Election Shape Myanmar’s Democracy?
Summary: "Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy. It is supposed to be one year until the next general election. The 2015 poll was the first general election in over 50 years that was free and fair and...
Description: "Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy. It is supposed to be one year until the next general election. The 2015 poll was the first general election in over 50 years that was free and fair and whose results were recognized. We will discuss to what extent the next election, due in 2020, will meet democratic norms; if it will deliver accurate results; and to what extent it will impact upon shaping free and fair elections, the essence of democracy, in the future. Executive director Ko Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint of the People’s Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE), and vice chair of the Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS) Ma Noe Noe Htet San join me. I’m The Irrawaddy English editor Kyaw Zwa Moe. Looking at the history of Myanmar since 1962, the 2015 election was relatively free and fair, and its results were recognized. Though the 1990 election was free and fair, the military regime did not recognize the results. To what extent will the 2020 election be free and fair, and what will be the difficulties? Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint: It is widely agreed that the 2015 election was aimed at power transfer. It can be said that it was the ultimate aim of the 2015 election. It is time to aim beyond that in the 2020 election. It is important to make elections become a normal part of the political transition. So it is important to make sure the 2020 election is not postponed because postponing it will impede the political transition..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-16
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