A junta-appointed election commission has moved to dissolve Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party (NLD) reported Myanmar Now.

BREAKING: At a Naypyitaw meeting with political parties on Friday, junta-appointed election commission chair Thein Soe said they will dissolve Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party due to "electoral fraud." The regime will prosecute NLD leaders as “traitors," he said. Full story coming. pic.twitter.com/crHH93PefE

— Myanmar Now (@Myanmar_Now_Eng) May 21, 2021

The reason given by commission chair Thein Soe was that the democratically elected party had committed "electoral fraud".

Thein Soe also said that the junta would prosecute NLD leaders as "traitors", according to Myanmar Now. 

NLD had won a landslide election in 2020 and was due to form a new government before it was ousted by Myanmar's armed forces, the Tatmadaw.

Party chief Suu Kyi has been detained by the military since the Feb. 1 coup and faces numerous charges.

Most of the party's other leaders have either been detained as well or are in hiding.

Parties refuse to attend meeting with commission

According to Myanmar Now, other major political parties had, by and large, refused to attend the electoral commission's meeting.

At least one of the parties cited the Tatmadaw's "illegitimate" actions as the reason for their boycott.

Reuters reported that the electoral commission had previously rejected the army's allegations of fraud in the November 2020 elections.

However, the commission is now made up entirely of new members appointed by the Tatmadaw.

While the regime has said that it will hold elections again at an unspecified time, Myanmar Now reported that  few observers believe the affair will be conducted with integrity.

“The junta that staged the coup appointed the people who will run the election. How can we trust them to hold a fair election?” said the leader of an ethnic party who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.

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