Yangon: Myanmar’s junta canceled the results of 2020 polls won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, announcing they were not “free and fair” almost six months after deposing the Nobel laureate in a coup.
Investigations had uncovered more than 11 million cases of fraud in the elections in which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy trounced the military-aligned opposition, the junta’s election commission said.
“They (the NLD) attempted to take state power from non-NLD parties and candidates by misusing Covid-19 restrictions,” said commission chairman Thein Soe.
“[It] was not free and fair, that is why the result of 2020 election is canceled.”
He did not say whether fresh polls in the country of 54 million would be held.
The junta has previously said it would hold new elections within two years, but has also threatened to dissolve the NLD.
Suu Kyi has been detained since the coup, and faces an eclectic raft of charges, from flouting coronavirus restrictions to illegally importing walkie talkies, that could see her jailed for more than a decade.
Myanmar has been in chaos since the military’s power grab, with more than 900 killed in a crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.
