Two Myanmar military-linked political events, rejecting their landslide loss to Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling Nationwide League for Democracy in November elections, filed a joint criticism with the Supreme Court docket accusing the federal government and nationwide election authorities of electoral fraud, they mentioned Tuesday.
The NLD swept the Nov. 8 elections by securing 83 % of the seats within the bicameral Union parliament that had been topic to voting in a system that reserves 25 % of seats for unelected army personnel.
The NLD, which received by the same margin within the final common elections in 2015, will type a authorities and launch Aung San Suu Kyi’s second five-year time period across the finish of March.
The opposition Union Solidarity and Improvement Get together (USDP), a army proxy political get together that ran the 2011-2015 authorities, refused to just accept the outcomes of the vote wherein it received solely 33 seats, towards the ruling get together’s almost 400 slots of the 644-seat Union parliament.
Inside days of the November elections, as votes had been nonetheless being tallied, the USDP raised accusations of fraud with the compilation of voter lists, poll irregularities, and vote counting in a number of townships. The get together demanded a brand new vote collectively supervised by the army and the Union Election Fee (UEC).
The USDP and the Democratic Get together of Nationwide Politics (DNP), a brand new get together fashioned by former army generals, say that the NLD authorities and the UEC — an unbiased, president-appointed physique that oversees voting — dedicated election fraud. The DNP fielded candidates in additional than 100 constituencies within the November elections, however didn’t win any seats.
The submitting names President Win Myint and three different authorities officers in addition to UEC chairman Hla Thein and 14 others as defendants.
The Supreme Court docket accepted the events’ Software of Writ, and on Monday issued a schedule of videoconference hearings on Jan. 29 involving the plaintiffs. The preliminary listening to will decide whether or not the court docket accepts the submitting and takes up the case. The court docket’s choice might be ultimate.
“They’re finished. We’ll proceed pursuing authorized motion towards them. Now we have filed the case with the Constitutional Tribunal and the Union Supreme Court docket,” mentioned DNP chairman Soe Maung at a joint press convention in Yangon.
The army will function witness within the case, he mentioned.
“The army has been concerned in exposing a lot proof associated to the case,” Soe Maung mentioned with out elaborating. “Now we have submitted an software of writs as a result of we’ve credible proof.”
The plaintiffs is not going to settle for any apologies as a result of the NLD already declared victory by way of fraud voting, he added.
The retired army common, who contested within the 2020 elections as a candidate from Yesagyo township in Magwe area however misplaced, mentioned there had been many situations of fraud reminiscent of voting by underage individuals and other people voting with out correct identification playing cards.
NLD is not going to reply
The UEC didn’t reply to RFA’s requests for touch upon the accusation and the court docket submitting. In December, the election physique mentioned the DNP had violated the Political Events Registration Legislation by issuing statements claiming electoral fraud and accusing UEC and election subcommission officers of failing to carry out their duties in accordance with the structure and the Election Fee Legislation.
Aye Aye Than, a USDP candidate who contested in Thingangyun township in Yangon area, mentioned she doesn’t contemplate newly elected candidates to be reputable as a result of the voting fraud criticism has but to be resolved.
“If the defendants can not refute the proof and the proof of voting fraud we offered, then they should settle for the findings we’ve,” she mentioned. “Now we have submitted credible proof, and if it can’t be confirmed flawed, the outcomes of the vote counts might be annulled, and the election outcomes might be nullified.”
“So long as the criticism shouldn’t be resolved, the standing of newly elected members of parliament shouldn’t be reputable,” she added. “Solely after the compliant is settled will they change into official MPs.”
NLD spokesman Monywa Aung Shin rejected the accusations as baseless and mentioned that his get together wouldn’t reply to them as a result of the 2020 election outcomes had already been acknowledged internationally as being truthful.
“The election outcomes have been confirmed beneath the Election Fee Legislation [and] have been internationally acknowledged,” he mentioned. “The folks additionally endorsed the outcomes since they had been allowed to vote for his or her desired events freely.”
“On condition that we’ve such credible details supporting the election outcomes, we is not going to reply to the protest or to some other try to tarnish the legitimacy of the election outcomes,” he mentioned.
USDP vice chairman Khin Yee instructed RFA that he doesn’t belief the UEC as a result of it did not settle beforehand raised allegations of voting fraud and that he doesn’t imagine the physique’s declare that the election outcomes are in keeping with the folks’s needs.
“We’ll preserve pursuing authorized motion, [but] we aren’t demanding a reelection. We’re demanding a recount of the votes,” he mentioned, including that the USDP desires an unbiased fee to look at the outcomes.
“We’re not childishly disputing the election outcomes,” he added. “The belief concern is fairly dangerous now. We can not settle for the election outcomes. We is not going to acknowledge them until the ruling authorities takes motion to show us flawed.”
‘It got here as a shock’
Longtime court docket lawyer Aye Paing mentioned in the course of the press convention that neither the president nor the accused lawmakers had complied with associated statutes within the 2008 structure earlier than and in the course of the 2020 elections.
He cited Article 64, which prohibits the president from being concerned in his get together’s marketing campaign actions, and Article 65, which requires the president, lawmakers, and authorities officers to swear that they are going to adjust to the constitution’s statutes.
“It got here as a shock that we discovered that the president was concerned in marketing campaign actions,” he mentioned. “It’s a violation of Article 64 of the structure.”
However Khin Maung Zaw, one other longtime court docket lawyer, mentioned the UEC’s choice concerning the election outcomes is ultimate.
“The Software of Writ filed with the Supreme Court docket is for authorized motion taken towards a authorities division, and never towards the whole authorities,” he mentioned. “However the UECs choice is ultimate, so these allegations shouldn’t be accepted legally.”
Officers mentioned that the army, the USDP, and the DNP have recorded over 1,000,000 situations of voting fraud. The USDP has reportedly filed greater than 1,000 instances with the UEC and almost 200 instances with the police. Ballot protests should be submitted inside 45 days of elections.
Intervention by the army is troubling to many in Myanmar, which endured harsh, corrupt army rule from 1962 to 2011. In 1990, the army nullified the outcomes of an election wherein the NLD received 81 % of the seats in parliament, holding Aung San Suu Kyi beneath home arrest for 15 years between 1989 and 2010.
Reported by Aung Theinkha, Phyu Phyu Khine, and Waiyan Moe Myint. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
