Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar testifies in an election fraud trial

• Aung San Suu Kyi is being tried for several counts, including electoral fraud.
• She was moved from a covert detention location to a Naypyitaw prison last month.
• If found guilty, she could be kept out of 2023 elections that the military has promised.
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BANGKOK: Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s leader, refuted election fraud allegations when she testified for the first time in the case at the jail court in the capital Naypyitaw, a legal official reports.

The army seized control from Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2016, citing massive election fraud in 2020. Independent election observers have not substantiated this assertion.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won overwhelmingly, while the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party did poorly.

If Suu Kyi’s party is found guilty of election fraud, it could be dissolved and kept out of the 2023 elections that the military has promised.

Suu Kyi was convicted of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, breaking coronavirus prohibitions, sedition, and corruption.

Suu Kyi’s friends and independent analysts think the charges are politically motivated to hurt her reputation, give the military’s takeover of power more legitimacy, and keep her from running for office again.

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Suu Kyi is being tried for several counts, including electoral fraud, in a new facility in Naypyitaw. She was moved from a covert detention location to a Naypyitaw prison last month.

Three years in jail is the penalty. Former president Win Myint and former minister Min Thu are co-defendants.

The military-appointed State Electoral Commission charged election fraud in November. The military fired the commission’s prior members, who said the election was fair.

The new commission accused the defendants, including its former chairman, of being “involved in electoral processes, election fraud and lawless actions.”

A legal official who knows about what happened on Friday said that Suu Kyi testified in court that she did not break the country’s constitution by holding the 2020 general election and that she did not have any effect on the Union Election Commission.

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