Myanmar Military Leader General Aung Hlaing: We Are Focused On Elections And COVID-19

Aung San Suu Kyi (left) and General Min Aung Hlaing (right). (Wikipedia Commons / Chainwit)

JAKARTA - The leader of the Myanmar military regime, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, said that the issue of elections and handling COVID-19 will be the priority of his government.

Myanmar's military launched a coup on Monday following an election dispute with Aung San Suu Kyi's government. After the coup, acting President U Myint Swe who was appointed by the military declared a state of emergency and handed over power to the senior general for one year.

The military regime has promised to investigate what it claims was mass fraud in the November 8, 2020 elections, which brought a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) Party. He also announced that they would hold elections after the dispute was resolved.

"During the one year emergency period, we must prioritize matters related to elections, as well as prevention, control and treatment of COVID-19", said the senior general at the first meeting of his newly formed cabinet, Tuesday, February 2 local time, as reported by The Irrawaddy.

Regarding the implementation of the Election, Min Aung Hlaing said he would investigate errors in the voter list, reform the electoral body and the General Election Commission.

"For the problem of voter list errors, it will be examined by someone known for their fairness. There will be actions according to the law after the results are out",he added.

Regarding COVID-19, he said the prevention, control and treatment of disease would be carried out without interruption, adding that procedures would be put in place so that international flights carrying the COVID-19 vaccine to Myanmar could land.