Military Coup in Myanmar
By: Nitya Jadeja
Nov 22, 2021
On February 1, 2021, Myanmar's military junta (‘Tatmadaw’) staged a coup and overturned the November 2020 election results (the National League for Democracy (NLD) won 82% of the legislative seats) on the grounds of alleged electoral fraud. This Graph of the Week demonstrates that the coup was unlikely to be the result of election fraud and more plausibly driven by Tatmadaw’s concern with the rising popularity of the NLD. The change in the clean election index from 2010 to 2020 indicates a substantial improvement in the quality of elections in Myanmar compared to other countries in the region. The Carter Center has also testified to the absence of major irregularities and Myanmar’s election commission has contradicted the military’s claims.
