Myanmar military reinstates law requiring people to report overnight visitors

Myanmar's junta on Saturday reinstated a law that requires people to report overnight visitors to the local police. This comes amid the ongoing hunt being carried out by the military to trace supporters of the ousted government. The Burmese military informed about the reinstated law on its Facebook page, where it directed people to report any overnight visitor they might be receiving at their place. The junta also reinstated another law that gives the military the permission to detain any person they might think is a suspect and also to carry out searches in private properties without a prior court order. 

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The military on Saturday issued an arrest warrant against seven people, who criticised the recent coup on social media platforms. The military asked people to provide any information they might have regarding the persons listed on its Facebook page. Most of the wanted persons from the list belong to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy (NLD) party. The military is also looking for a prominent pro-democracy activists, who had risen to fame during the 1988 protests. 

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The coup

The Burmese military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, a day before the newly-elected members of parliament were scheduled to take the oath. The military accused Suu Kyi's government of rigging November elections, in which her party National League for Democracy (NLD) had emerged the victor by a landslide. Suu Kyi's party managed to win 396 of the 476 parliamentary seats of the ones that are not reserved for the military. Experts suggest that the military feared Suu Kyi, with a larger majority than in 2015, would try and reduce the number of parliamentary seats reserved for the Army.

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Prior to the 2020 election, Suu Kyi had promised to decrease the proportion of seats reserved for the military. The Burmese Army currently controls 25 percent of the parliamentary seats, on which the civilian parties cannot fight elections. Myanmar is a young democracy, with the military ruling the country for the most part of its independent history. When the military finally decided to let go of the control following the revolution in 2011, it reserved seats for itself in the Parliament while drafting the Constitution. Suu Kyi decided to challenge the rule and change the status quo, which experts believe is the reason behind the coup.  

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