Read on Twitter
Military rule is back in Myanmar. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/world/asia/myanmar-coup-aung-san-suu-kyi.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
"All authority has been given to the top army commander and a one-year state of emergency has been declared, a statement on military TV said." https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55882489
"The army said it had carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-politics-idUSKBN2A00VC
The military says it will hold elections "as soon as it completes implementing emergency provisions" https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/coup-myanmar-military-says-will-hold-new-election.html
For what it's worth, electoral support for pro-military parties has been consistently much lower than the NLD in Myanmar on available evidence - in 1990 they lost to the NLD 60%-21% and in 2015 the NLD won again 57%-28%. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13510347.2017.1391794
It looks like the military will again try to "discipline" Myanmar's democracy with one aim being to increase the military's electoral popularity. It probably won't work this time, either.
The last period of overt military rule saw severe repression of the opposition, activists fleeing to safety in Thailand (not a good option anymore), and ultimately an election that confirmed that the military was about as unpopular as it was 25 years prior.
Maybe they're banking on the NLD being too personalist and having a shelf life given that Aung San Suu Kyi is 75 years old. By most accounts she didn't take party building measures that could have broadened the NLD's competence.
But even if the NLD loses support over the medium-long term, it's not at all clear that such support would swing to the USDP. The military would have to warp the country's institutions even more than it already has to achieve even the appearance of popular legitimacy.
We've seen this movie before. If they actually do this the NLD will win again, handily. https://twitter.com/Beaking_News/status/1356186071034437639?s=20
TV stations blocked in Myanmar https://twitter.com/ThawWinnie/status/1356076734630649859?s=20
Pro-military thugs beating people up https://twitter.com/tayzar44/status/1356159210816499714?s=20
Part of a good thread by @Rymegan - the puzzling thing is that the military had *plenty* of evidence to understand its own lack of popularity. It just couldn't or didn't want to learn that fact. https://twitter.com/Rymegan/status/1356195571971842048?s=20
