The world woke up to the news of military coup in Southeast Asian country of Myanmar on Monday. The military in a television address announced that power has been handed over to the commander in Chief of the Armed forces and a state of emergency has been declared for a year.
Most of the political leaders in the country, including the country’s political leader, Aung San Suu Kyi have been detained in the capital Naypyidaw.
According to reports, there had been increasing friction between the Suu Kyi-led government and the military over alleged election irregularities.
The military had disputed the last November parliamentary election in the country after Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDO) performed dismally in the poll.
The military also repeatedly disputed the election results. It claimed without providing evidence that there were more than 10.5 million cases of potential fraud and called on the election commission to publicly release the final polling data.
In its television address, the army said it had detained Suu Kyi and other political leaders for failing to take action over unfounded election fraud and had declared a state of emergency for one year. Power was transferred to the commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who will carry out an investigation into voting irregularities, according to the announcement.
Justifying the coup, the military cited a section of the constitution that said in the event of a state of emergency, as is the case now, the commander-in-chief has the constitutional right to “take over and exercise State sovereign power.”
