Myanmar’s military launched a coup d’état on January 1, and the military’s chief of power, 64-year-old Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, finally made a public appearance on August 8. In a televised speech, he again accused the military of serious fraud in last year’s election, stressing the legitimacy of the coup, and said that after the end of the state of emergency, a new election would be held and the regime would be handed over to the winning party. Aung San Suu Kyi, a senior state minister, was arrested.
In his first televised speech since last week’s coup, Min Aung Hlaing alleged that the election commission and civilian leaders had failed to properly investigate allegations of fraud in last November’s election and that “in order to maintain and protect democracy, the Burmese army (Tatmadaw) declared a state of emergency in accordance with the 2008 constitution,” according to foreign media reports. “
Min Aung Hlaing also insisted that the new junta is different from the one that ruled Burma for 49 years and ended in 2011, saying it “will hold free and fair multiparty elections in accordance with the constitution after the completion of the emergency period” and “will hand over state responsibilities to the winning party in accordance with democratic norms. “.
Min Aung Hlaing did not mention Aung San Suu Kyi in his speech. Aung San Suu Kyi, the substantive leader of the democratically elected government, and dozens of members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) were arrested in the coup. Aung San Suu Kyi has also been charged with illegally importing six radio walkie-talkies and could be detained for up to 15 days.
Min Aung Hlaing’s speech comes as mass demonstrations have broken out on the streets of Myanmar’s major cities for three days in a row, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets of Yangon, the first city, to protest the military’s seizure of power and parts of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, under martial law from Monday after the military warned it would take action against law-breaking protesters.
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