Myanmar military chief General Min Aung Hlaing (L) and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (R)

Myanmar's democratic transition had been a work in progress. The results of the 2020 election, held during the pandemic, were being seen by the NLD as a mandate for its plan of constitutional reform, through which it aimed to do away with the military's role in politics and governance

The Myanmar military grabbed power in a coup on Monday (February 1) morning, ahead of a scheduled meeting of the country’s newly elected Parliament.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the National League for Democracy (NLD) to a landslide win in the 2020 elections, and the de facto leader of the ousted government, has been detained, according to reports from Myanmar. President Win Myint has also been detained.

In a broadcast on its own television early on Monday, the military declared a one-year state of Emergency. The military takeover came after a week of rumours and speculation ahead of the scheduled opening of Myanmar’s newly elected lower house of Parliament.

Amid heightened civilian military tensions, and following statements of concern by the UN Secretary General and a group of Myanmar-based western embassies, the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military, had put out a statement on Saturday declaring it would protect and abide by the Constitution.

What Triggered The Coup

The military has alleged that the general elections held in November 2020 were full of “irregularities” and that therefore, the results — a sweep for NLD — are not valid. It has questioned the veracity of some 9 million votes cast in the election.

The military had demanded that the United Elections Commission (UEC) of Myanmar which oversees elections, or the government, or outgoing parliamentarians prove at a special session before the new parliament convenes on February 1, that the elections were free and fair. The demand had been rejected.

Speech of The Army Chief

According to ‘The Irrawaddy’ news website, Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said the Tatmadaw, or the Myanmar military, “needs to abide by the Constitution”, which is the “mother of the law”.

The military, he told officers at the National Defence College via video conference, would respect all existing laws that are “not beyond the 2008 Constitution”, but “if one does not follow the law, such a law must be revoked. I mean if it is the Constitution, it is necessary to revoke the Constitution. If one does not follow the law, the Constitution must be revoked”.

The Military’s Constitution

It was the military that drafted the 2008 Constitution, and put it to a questionable referendum in April that year. The NLD had boycotted the referendum, as well as the 2010 elections that were held under the Constitution.

The Constitution was the military’s “roadmap to democracy”, which it had been forced to adopt under increasing pressure from the west, and its own realisation that opening up Myanmar to the outside world was now no longer an option but a dire economic necessity. But the military made sure to safeguard in the Constitution its own role and supremacy in national affairs.


Under its provisions, the military reserves for itself 25 per cent of seats in both Houses of Parliament, to which it appoints serving military officials. Also, a political party which is a proxy for the military contests elections. Its share of seats fell further this time because of the NLD’s sweep.

The Army’s Allegation

A military spokesman said earlier in the week that the Tatmadaw had found 8.6 million irregularities in 314 areas across all states and regions, and that this indicated the possibility that people had voted “more than once”, or had engaged in some other “voting malpractice”.

The UEC has said it had found no evidence of any voting malpractice or fraud. It has said that each vote was “counted transparently and witnessed by election candidates, election staff, the media, observers and other civil society organizations”.

The army chief called the 2008 Constitution “effective”. Each section of the law has a purpose and meaning, he said, and no one should take it upon themselves to interpret it as they pleased. “Applying the law based on one’s own ideas may cause harm rather than being effective,” he was quoted as saying by ‘The Irrawaddy’.

He also spoke about how the military had revoked two previous constitutions in Myanmar.

Democratic Transition Halted

The speech and the army’s assertion prompted the United States embassy and diplomatic missions of 15 other countries and the European Union in Yangon to issue a joint statement “oppos[ing] any attempt to alter the outcome of the elections or impede Myanmar’s democratic transition”.

Myanmar’s democratic transition had been a work in progress. The results of the 2020 election, held during the pandemic, were being seen by the NLD as a mandate for its plan of constitutional reform, through which it aimed to do away with the military’s role in politics and governance. But this was never going to be easy, given the tight constitutional restrictions for amendments.

But the hybrid system was a huge shift away from what it was until 2011, the year the military decided to release Suu Kyi from her nearly two-decade-long house arrest, thus inaugurating its “road map to democracy” on which there has been slow progress.

Suu Kyi had been more reconciliatory towards the Army than was expected even by her own supporters, to the extent of defending the Tatmadaw at the International Court of Justice against accusations of atrocities on the Rohingya. The stand-off over the elections was the first serious face-off she had with the military since her release.