Army chief’s rhetoric fuels fears of coup

Myanmar's army chief has raised the prospect of scrapping the country's constitution as fears swirl about a possible coup by the military over electoral fraud concerns.

The army has for weeks alleged widespread voter irregularities in November's election, which Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide.

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The civilian administration has been in an uneasy power-sharing agreement with the army generals since Myanmar's first democratic elections in 2015, as dictated by a 2008 junta-authored constitution.

An army spokesman on Tuesday refused to rule out the possibility of the military seizing total power to deal with what he called a political crisis.And yesterday General Min Aung Hlaing -- arguably Myanmar's most powerful individual -- appeared to echo that sentiment in a speech published in Myawady newspaper.

The army chief said the 2008 constitution was "the mother law for all laws" and should be respected. But he warned that in certain circumstances it could be "necessary to revoke the constitution". The comments follow repeated demands by the army for Myanmar's election commission to release final voter lists from the November polls.