Myanmar military promises new election; Aung San Suu Kyi faces additional charge

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Myanmar’s military junta promised yesterday that there would be an election and it would hand over power as police filed an additional charge against toppled former leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

It also defended its seizure of power, denying it was a coup even as protesters took to the streets in large numbers in support of Suu Kyi and other arrested leaders. While China dismissed rumours that it had helped with the military’s action, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has decried the new criminal charge on Syu Kyi, saying it was fabricated.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the ruling council, told the junta’s first news conference since overthrowing Suu Kyi’s government that their objective is to hold an election and hand power to the winning party. Asked about the detention of Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi and the president, Zaw Min Tun said they were in their homes for their security while the law took its course.

Meanwhile protesters milled onto a railway track earlier yesterday in support of the disobedience movement and blocked trains between the commercial capital Yangon and the southern city of Mawlamyine. Buddhist monks also rallied against the coup in Yangon while hundreds marched through the west coast town of Thanked.