But the military also demanded that the Commission hand over copies of voter lists and results so it could cross-check - a power it doesn’t have. Then, Myanmar’s Union Election Commission received over 280 complaints disputing the election results. As the government pointed out, it should have raised these concerns prior to the election when voter lists were being verified. In late 2020, the military began raising concerns about voter lists. There were indications both before and after the November 2020 elections that the military was willing to fight the results of a National League for Democracy victory - in both constitutional and unconstitutional ways. It comes in the wake of multiple attempts by the military to bend the Constitution to its will.
This constitutional crisis is about the military’s use of emergency powers as a fig leaf for a coup. It claims to be acting by the book - the 2008 Constitution, which it wrote. Much of the military’s manoeuvres against her National League for Democracy government were predictable. On 1 February, the world was shocked by a military coup in Myanmar and the arrest of State Councillor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other political leaders. Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific