true https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55908105

https://poal.co/s/Videos/282646

The Military Junta's claims of rigged elections have been used to maintain un-elected power over the civilians in repeated cycles since 1980s: >Since independence in 1948, Myanmar has been a nexus for overlapping conflicts fought between Communist and nationalist forces; ethnic minority armies and the national government; and rival interests in the international heroin trade which all of the above factions (including government military units) depend on for financing. >In 1962, fourteen years after the country then known as Burma became independent from British colonial rule, the Tatmadaw under General Ne Win overthrew the civilian government and installed a centralized, authoritarian regime combining elements of socialism and nationalism. The coup in part arose from fears that the civilian government was failing to crack down harshly enough on ethnic minority movements and their associated armed wings. >In August 1988, mass protests led to the deposing of Ne Win — only for a new military junta to take power in September that instigated a bloody crackdown in which thousands were killed. The junta nonetheless held democratic multi-party elections in 1990, and the National League of Democracy (NLD) party of Suu Kyi, the daughter of an assassinated independence hero, won the election overwhelmingly. >The junta refused to accept this result and annulled the election, arresting many of the opposition party members and placing Suu Kyi under house arrest, a condition in which she remained intermittently for two decades. Following a new wave of mass protests in 2007, Myanmar’s military leadership again took steps to transition towards multi-party democracy and civilian rule. But this time the military took measures in advance to ensure it did not lose its foothold in the halls of power, reserving key ministries and 25% of parliamentary seats for unelected military appointees and wording the new constitution so as to disqualify Suu Kyi from the presidency. >Nonetheless, Suu Kyi’s NLD party went on to win overwhelmingly in elections in 2015 and 2020, and she has acted in a de facto executive role in the newly created office of “State Counsellor of Myanmar.” Still, the Tatmadaw has refused to subordinate itself to civilian rule and pursued its own agenda, including a covert social media manipulation campaign targeting the Rohingya minority group on Facebook. Fighting between the military and ethnic minorities actually increased in the 2010s, with the Tatmadaw launching new offensives against multiple rebel groups. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastienroblin/2021/02/01/is-history-repeating-itself-in-myanmar-military-coup/?sh=607039267f6c