Myanmar Military’s Long History of Electoral Fraud

The article traces Myanmar’s long history of military-engineered elections to argue that the junta’s current promise of holding new polls is neither credible nor meaningful. From sham referendums and one-party elections after the 1962 coup, to the refusal to honor the NLD’s landslide victory in 1990, to the fraudulent 2008 constitution and the eventual rejection of the NLD’s overwhelming win in 2020, the military has consistently manipulated or discarded electoral outcomes it did not like. The 2021 coup and subsequent civil war mark a decisive break from past cycles of limited liberalization, as the public is no longer willing to forgive military abuses. The piece concludes that the junta will never accept a genuinely democratic result, that ASEAN and engagement-focused foreign actors are incapable of resolving the crisis, and that Myanmar is being driven toward state collapse by a military determined to cling to power at all costs.