The din of banging pots and honking car horns reverberated through Myanmar ’s biggest city of Yangon late on Tuesday in the first widespread protest against the military coup that overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi . The party of the detained Nobel Peace laureate called for her release by the junta that seized power on Monday and is keeping her at an undisclosed location. It also demanded recognition of her victory in a November 8 election . The military has refused to accept the NLD’s landslide election win, citing unsubstantiated allegations of fraud. The army detained NLD leaders, handed power to its commander, General Min Aung Hlaing , and imposed a state of emergency for a year. At the United Nations , Myanmar envoy Christine Schraner Burgener urged the Security Council to “collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar.” The council is negotiating a possible statement that would condemn the coup, call for the military to respect the rule of law and human rights, and immediately release those unlawfully detained, diplomats said. Consensus is needed in the 15-member council for such statements. A diplomat with China ’s UN mission said it would be difficult to reach consensus on the draft statement. “We are of the view that any action by the Council should contribute to political and social stability of Myanmar and its peace and reconciliation, avoiding escalating the tension or further complicating the situation,” the diplomat said. On Wednesday, the NLD said Myanmar’s military had released about 400 people, including former ruling party lawmakers, and ordered them to go home, though senior officials including Suu Kyi apparently remain under house arrest. The military leaders are reportedly planning to charge Suu Kyi with treason, according to numerous reports in social media on Wednesday. US State Department officials said the takeover had been determined to constitute a coup d’etat, triggering restrictions in foreign assistance. Humanitarian aid, including to the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, and programmes that promote democracy or benefit civil society would continue. In the biggest public protest against the coup so far, people in Yangon chanted “evil be gone” and banged on metal pots in a traditional gesture to drive away evil or bad karma. Doctors and medical staff at multiple hospitals across the country announced on Wednesday that they were donning red ribbons and walking away from all non-emergency work to protest the coup. Some medical teams posted pictures on social media wearing red ribbons and raising a three-finger salute – a protest gesture used by democracy activists in neighbouring Thailand . One doctor was photographed with “Dictatorship must fail” written on the back of their hazmat suit. General Min Aung Hlaing told the first meeting of his new government it was inevitable the army would have to take power after its claims of election fraud were rejected by the electoral commission. He has promised a free and fair election and a handover of power to the winner, without giving a time frame. The coup marks the second time the military has refused to recognise a landslide election win for the NLD, having also rejected the result of 1990 polls that were meant to pave the way for multiparty government. Suu Kyi, 75, endured about 15 years of house arrest between 1989 and 2010 as she led the country’s democracy movement. The military had ruled from 1962 until her party came to power in 2015 under a constitution that guarantees the generals a role in government. Her international standing as a human rights icon was badly damaged over the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims in 2017 and her defence of the military against accusations of genocide. How will US respond to Myanmar coup as democracy’s defender? That same military must now figure out how to beat her at the polls, however, if elections do go ahead as promised. Myanmar’s generals have repeatedly been trounced by Suu Kyi’s party. After the 1990 elections, it took 18 years for a junta to write a new constitution that guaranteed the military a veto on any changes, and its designated army-backed political party only won in 2010 because Suu Kyi was under house arrest and her party boycotted. She won the last two votes in a landslide. “Despite a constitution that favoured it on several fronts, military-backed opposition parties were no match for the National League of Democracy come election time,” said Lee Morgenbesser at Griffith University in Australia, who studies authoritarianism in Southeast Asia. “Having ‘committed’ to holding a free and fair general election, the ruling junta is now likely to dissolve or bar the NLD on frivolous grounds.” Myanmar’s 2008 constitution already gave the military lots of power. It guaranteed the armed forces 25 per cent of seats in parliament, giving it an effective veto over any amendments, and further enabled it to take power under vague terms through a state of emergency, as occurred on Monday. Still, Suu Kyi’s massive popularity spooked the top generals, who had shot down proposals over the years for constitutional changes that would dilute their power. Before the coup, the military and civilian government clashed over a constitutional amendment that would allow Suu Kyi to serve as president, which was not allowed because her children are British citizens. Army leaders feared “there was going to be overwhelming pressure for constitutional change that might start to erode those powers that the military were clinging on to”, said Andrew Heyn, a former British ambassador to Myanmar. Myanmar’s new military regime has already started to lay the groundwork for changes while Suu Kyi and other top NLD leaders remain under house arrest. It has filled key senior positions in the cabinet and judiciary with allies, and reinstated supreme and high court judges as well as all members of its anti-corruption commission. Suu Kyi has urged her supporters to oppose the army’s move, calling it “an attempt to bring the nation back under the military dictatorship”. Although the bloodless coup itself was clearly well planned, it remains unclear whether the military has thought through what comes next Peter Mumford of risk consultancy Eurasia Group To ensure the military wins the next election, assuming they actually try to hold one, its leaders could employ some tactics seen elsewhere in the region. They include amending the constitution and election laws, filing criminal charges against key opposition leaders and asserting control of the country’s election commission, which the army chief has already said would be reconfigured. Pulling that off will not be easy. Although the streets are quiet now, Myanmar has a history of pro-democracy uprisings followed by bloody crackdowns. Suu Kyi remains the most popular figure in country by far and the NLD would likely win a re-run election even if she and other key party leaders were unable to contest the polls, said Peter Mumford, Southeast & South Asia practice head at risk consultancy Eurasia Group. “That suggests the military will explore, as has happened elsewhere in the region, reforming the electoral system to make it harder for a single party to dominate parliament,” he said. “Although the bloodless coup itself was clearly well planned, it remains unclear whether the military has thought through what comes next.” China calls for calm ahead of UN Security Council meeting on Myanmar Meanwhile, some 2,000 people took to the streets of Tokyo on Wednesday in protest against the military coup and called for the international community to stand beside Suu Kyi. “Free Burma. Free Aung San Suu Kyi,” protestors chanted in front of the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, as they held up photographs of Suu Kyi and posters with messages written in English and Japanese. “The response from the international community is important. We would like the Japanese government to voice its opinion more,” said Kyaw Kyaw Soe, a senior member of the Union of Myanmar Citizen Association and one of the organisers of the rally. He said he handed a written request to an official of the ministry’s Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department. The Tokyo-based group requested that the Japanese government use its “political, diplomatic and economic power” to restore democracy in Myanmar. “The military takeover has made it difficult for people who want to return to Myanmar from Japan to actually go back,” Kyaw Kyaw Soe said. “I think they took our freedom away from us.” Reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg, AFP, Kyodo