CYBER THREAT ANALYSIS The protests started gathering force in March 1988 and eventually culminated in the August 8, 1988 protests, where large demonstrations from students and sympathizers demanded a multi-party democracy. On August 22, 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi became a symbol of the pro-democracy movement after addressing the protesters at Shwedagon Pagoda and encouraged the protesters to keep fighting for their beliefs and a multi-party system of government. However, the military government was able to retain power in September 1988 after they enacted martial law, cracked down on the protesters, and put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. Additionally, the 1988 protests led to the creation of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) from 1988 to 1997. The SPDC was, until its dissolution in 2011, the official name of the military government and was composed of powerful regional military commanders who were given preferential power above other cabinet ministers. 2015 and 2020 Elections Myanmar underwent their first multi-party election in November 2015, with Aung San Suu Kyi running under the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD won an overwhelming majority of the votes against the incumbent, and militaryfavored, Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The Tatmadaw continued having 166, or the constitutionally required 25%, of seats represented. However, there were reports that approximately 4 million people were unable to register to vote due to the cancellation of polling areas in regions that were affected by ethnic violence and the inability for Myanmar citizens working overseas to register to vote in time. Myanmar’s latest election occurred on November 8, 2020, with Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD again winning a large percentage of the overall votes, showing that she remained a popular domestic figure. Similar to 2015, there were claims that overseas voters were unable to register in time, that the COVID-19 pandemic had caused some polling locations to shut down, and that Myanmar’s Rohingya population were excluded from participating in the election or running as candidates. Additionally, in October 2020, Myanmar’s electoral commission canceled voting stations in large parts of the populous Rakhine, Shan, and Kachin states, citing violence in the region as hindering their abilities to “hold a free and fair election” — thus leaving several million people without the ability to participate in the election. The alleged election fraud was the justification used by the military for their February 2021 coup, with military officials reported to have arrested members of Myanmar’s Union Election Commission (UEC) while they conducted their investigation. Figure 11: 2020 election results by party and number of seats won (Source: Merin.org) www.recordedfuture.com | Recorded Future ® CTA-2021-0324 10