Misleading claim circulates online that Aung San Suu Kyi lost seat in Myanmar election before result was announced
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 9, 2020 at 11:05
- Updated on November 9, 2020 at 11:14
- 2 min read
- By AFP Myanmar
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The video was published here on Facebook on November 8, 2020. It has been viewed 43,000 times and shared more than 3,000 times.
In the one-minute video, a man can be seen speaking in Burmese. His comments translate to English as: “[Burmese greeting] I am going to tell you some good news. Good news.The [National League for Democracy] has lost in Kawhmu township. I heard that news. Can someone please confirm this for me? Let me tell you who don’t understand what I meant. [Aung San Suu Kyi] has lost Kawhmu. I will keep you all updated.”
Kawhmu is a township in Yangon region of Myanmar.
Myanmar held its general election on November 8, 2020 as AFP reported here. As Myanmar local media reported here and here, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Chair of the National League for Democracy (NLD), contested a Lower House (Pyithu Hluttaw) seat in Kawhmu Township of Yangon division.
The video was also published alongside a similar claim here.
The claim is misleading.
As of the morning of November 9, Myanmar officials had not made any official announcements on the election results in Kawhmu Township.
In response to the misleading video, Monywa U Aung Shin, the secretary of the Central Information Committee of NLD, told AFP at 8:30pm on November 8 that votes were still being counted in Kawhmu township and no official results had been declared.
He said: “We (NLD) are winning a majority in the Yangon region. We are also good in Kawhmu. That is totally fake news that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was beaten in Kawhmu, and the final official result hasn't been released yet”.
The NLD maintains an election result dashboard that does not show an update on the results for the Kawhmu township seat as of 4:30pm on November 9.
As of the morning of November 9, the Myanmar Union Election had also not made any announcement on the election result.
According to local media Myanmar Now, no winner had been declared in Kawhmu Township as of the morning of November 9.
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