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Myanmar coup will test Biden’s foreign policy capability
A military coup in Myanmar presents an earlier foreign policy test for President Joe Biden and his government has threatened new sanctions against the country as it seeks to restore US priority as a global leader for democracy. (February 2)
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The claim: Myanmar uses Dominion Voting Systems in fraudulent election
On February 1, the Myanmar army took over the country, citing the unproven allegations of voter fraud as their justification. In the days that followed, the action was widely condemned by international leaders as an anti-democratic human rights violation.
However, users of social media use the opportunity to twist false narratives that promote unfounded election disputes against Donald Trump in the United States.
“The White House of Biden is afraid after Myanmar arrested military political leaders for electoral fraud during their election on November 8,” claims one such Facebook post shared on February 1. “Myanmar used Dominion Voting Systems.”
The claim is accompanied by a picture of former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Aung San Suu Kyi, the Myanmar politician. Photojournalist Pete Souza took the photo on November 19, 2012 in Suu Kyi’s home in Yangon.
The post misjudged the military takeover in Myanmar and falsely stated that Dominion Voting Systems was involved.
Dominion, a voice technology company used by many U.S. states and municipalities, has been at the center of many false allegations of election fraud promoted by Trump’s supporters and legal team since he lost the November election. USA TODAY has in fact examined several of these allegations and found them to be untrue.
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USA TODAY has reached the Facebook user and received no response.
Rule was not used in Myanmar
Dominion machines will not be used in Myanmar in 2020, according to a statement from Dominion Voting Systems issued to the US today. The statement described the claim as “completely false” and noted that the company’s machines had never been used in Myanmar.
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Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer is being charged with $ 1.3 billion for defamation after he questioned voting machines in the presidential election.
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A report funded by the European Union and a Reuters correspondent from Myanmar confirmed that in the 2020 election, Myanmar used paper votes that counted staff by hand.
Military takeover in Myanmar: no evidence of voter fraud
Myanmar military television announced on February 1 that troops would take control of the country’s government for next year due to a national emergency. According to a military spokesman, the military intervened after the government failed to postpone the November election due to the pandemic and because the government did not act against the army’s allegations of voter fraud.
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In November, Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won the parliamentary election. Myanmar’s electoral commission rejected allegations of fraud in late January, saying there was no evidence.
The military takeover comes after days of concern over a possible military coup. The Associated Press calls the military action a “sharp reversal” of Myanmar’s progress toward democracy after five decades of military rule.
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi detained
According to reports, Suu Kyi was among many senior politicians detained in the effort.
Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her ‘non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights’. She was a founder of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy and spent nearly 15 years under house arrest by the military for her efforts to democratize the country.
The NLD calls the military takeover a ‘coup d’etat’ and urges citizens not to give in to a ‘military dictatorship’ in a Facebook statement on 1 February.
International media could not achieve NLD leadership.
International actors call military takeover a ‘coup’
G7 foreign ministers – from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – and a High Representative of the European Union condemned the military takeover in a statement on 3 February. The statement called on the military to release “illegally detained” politicians, return power to the democratically elected government and “respect human rights”.
“We stand with the people of Myanmar who want to see a democratic future,” the statement concluded.
In a February 1 statement, President Joe Biden called the military takeover, the detention of Suu Kyi and the declaration of a national emergency “a direct attack on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law.”
“In a democracy, power should never try to dominate the will of the people or to obliterate the outcome of a credible election,” he wrote.
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Our rating: false
We review the allegation that Dominion Voting Systems was used to commit election fraud in Myanmar FALSE because the voting software was not used in Myanmar in 2020. Reports confirm that Myanmar uses paper votes and hand-counted votes, which yielded a majority vote opposed to the military-backed candidate. Myanmar’s election commission and world leaders believe the results of the countries’ elections were authentic.
Our sources for fact checking:
- Associated Press, January 31, “Myanmar army says it seizes land; Aung San Suu Kyi detained, reports say”
- Patti Wiseman, February 1, Facebook Post
- The White House, President Barack Obama, met on February 3 with President Aung San Suu Kyi and sec. Clinton ‘visit.
- USA TODAY, November 14, 2020, “Fact check: Dominion voting machines did not remove votes from Trump, switched to Biden”
- USA TODAY, December 18, 2020, “Fact Check: Hugo Chávez’s Family Does Not Own Dominion Voting Systems”
- USA TODAY, January 14, “Fact check: Dominion voting machines create ballots for audits only, testing”
- USA TODAY, January 23, “Fact Test: Claim of Chinese Investment in Dominion Voting Systems Confuses UBS Subsidiaries”
- USA TODAY, February 3, email with Dominion Voting Systems spokesperson
- INTERNATIONAL IDEA MYANMAR 2020, “General Election 2020 in Myanmar – Facts”
- Reuters, February 2, “Fact check: Myanmar did not use Dominion Voting Systems in general election”
- Associated Press, January 29, “Myanmar Election Commission Rejects Military Claims on Fraud”
- The Nobel Prize, ‘Aung San Suu Kyi’ obtained on 3 February
- National League for Democracy, February 1, Facebook Post
- US State Department, February 3, “Statement by G7 Foreign Ministers on the situation in Burma”
- WhiteHouse.gov, February 1, “Statement by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on the situation in Burma”
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