DM Monitoring
Naypyitaw: Military ruler General Min Aung Hlaing was moving quickly to consolidate his hold on power following the overthrow of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the detention of her and allied politicians on Monday. He told a business group on Wednesday night he could keep power for six months after a one-year state of emergency ends in order to hold fair elections.
But in a show of defiance to the generals, about a dozen of the lawmakers elected in a Nov. 8 ballot convened a symbolic parliamentary session in the quarters where they have been staying since the takeover.
Small protests took place in the main city Yangon and elsewhere, with activists saying three people had been arrested, and doctors were also mounting a campaign of civil disobedience.
But in a country with a bloody history of crackdowns on demonstrations, there was no mass outpouring of opposition to the coup on the streets. The army seized power on Monday alleging irregularities in the election, derailing Myanmar’s long and difficult transition to democracy.
