Partyforumseasia:  Fascinated with the US – election, we might forget that it is rather common not to accept election results. But the outgoing US-President is certainly not in good company…

USDP cries election foul

After early returns in Sunday’s elections showed the military-backed opposition party heading to a crushing defeat, the party refused to accept the outcome and demanded a re-run of the election with the military’s cooperation.

The move was seen as an attempt to discredit the polls and has sent shockwaves throughout the political and business communities in Yangon.

Myanmar held its second openly-contested polls in half a century last Sunday. The ruling National League for Democracy said it expected to win 399 seats, more than its landslide victory in 2015, sweeping aside a fragmented opposition.

Top Myanmar-focused electoral experts see the Union Solidarity and Development Party’s rejection as an effort to discredit the elections, because it was on course to lose several of its former strongholds in another landslide defeat. They said the move was not a manoeuvre to launch a coup against the government of State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

USDP leader U Than Htay, in an interview with Radio Free Asia Burmese, said the election was unfair and his party had ordered candidates not to sign off on their losses.

The new parliament is scheduled to convene in February and vote in March for a new president who will take office with his or her Cabinet on April 1.

Source: Myanmar Times, 11.11.2020
https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-opposition-demands-election-re-run-after-heavy-losses.html