3 | THE MILITARY’S CLAIMS OF ELECTION FRAUD IN 2020 REMAIN UNSUBSTANTIATED Myanmar’s junta has used voter fraud in the 2020 general election as a narrative to justify the coup, subsequent reforms, and the holding of new elections. However, evidence contradicts the claims of the military. Before the elections took place in November 2020, the militaryaffiliated Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and Tatmadaw commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing repeatedly criticized the UEC and its decisions, setting the stage for postelection protests. The USDP immediately rejected the election results when it appeared that the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) had won by a landslide, and called for the UEC to hold new elections in collaboration with the armed forces. The USDP then launched a coordinated campaign to file election complaints nationwide and flood election tribunals, spending more than US$75,000 in legal fees doing so. At the same time, in an attempt to side-step the electoral dispute resolution process provided by law, the USDP and other political parties close to the military called for a commission of inquiry comprising political parties and “institutions and entities responsible to safeguard the Constitution5” to investigate election fraud. The UEC eventually received 287 formal complaints, including 171 filed by the USDP and more filed against the NLD by private proxies, compared to 45 after the 2015 general election. As the commission was scheduled to start hearings on these complaints on 1 February, the Tatmadaw staged a coup the same day, further 5 “Joint Statement by 16 Political Parties on the Outcome of the 2020 General Election”, 11 November 2020, https://www.facebook.com/share/18pDVJrD17/ 17