Myanmar junta extends state of emergency by 6 months
Myanmar junta extends state of emergency by 6 months. Junta faces major battlefield losses to ethnic minority groups, Coup aftermath includes 2.7 million displaced, 5,400 killed
Myanmar’s military junta extended its state of emergency for six months on Wednesday, again postponing new elections it had promised in fighting the resistance to the coup.
The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since the February 2021 coup that ended a decade-long democratic experiment and triggered mass protests and a crackdown on dissent.
Three and a half years later, the junta has struggled to quell widespread militancy, most recently suffering a series of stunning defeats against an alliance of ethnic armed groups in Myanmar.
The junta was unable to hold new elections as planned after the initial two-year state of emergency “because of terrorist attacks” by the opposition, broadcaster MRTV reported.
All members of the junta-led National Defense and Security Council “unanimously decided to extend the state of emergency for another six months,” MRTV said. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing had proposed the extension “to prepare valid and accurate ballot papers” for elections the junta has promised, possibly in 2025.
The extension is also needed “to conduct the census and continue carrying out the work that needs to be done,” MRTV said.
Under the military-drafted 2008 constitution, which the junta says is still valid, authorities are required to hold new elections within six months of lifting the state of emergency in Myanmar.
Battlefield defeats The military seized power after making unproven claims of fraud in a 2020 election won by a landslide by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
Since then, the country has extended the state of emergency several times as it battles existing ethnic armed groups and an emerging pro-democracy group, the People’s Defence Army.
In recent months, the military has suffered a series of battlefield defeats against an alliance of ethnic armed groups in the north and west of the country. Last week, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) claimed it had captured the northern town of Lashio, which is on a key trade route to China and is home to the Northeastern Army Command.
The junta denied the claim.
The loss of Lashio and the regional army command would be a major blow to the junta, which has lost territory to the MNDAA and other militant groups in recent weeks.
In January, the MNDAA captured the town of Laukkai, near Myanmar’s border with China, after about 2,000 junta troops surrendered. It was one of the worst defeats for the army in decades.
According to the United Nations, fighting between the army and its opponents has forced 2.7 million people to flee their homes since the coup. More than 5,400 people have been killed and more than 27,000 arrested since the coup as part of the junta’s crackdown on dissent, according to local monitoring groups.
The junta has announced new elections will be held in 2025.
But critics say the planned elections will not be free or fair.
Last year, the junta-led Election Commission announced that Suu Kyi’s NLD would be dissolved after it failed to re-register under a strict new electoral law drafted by the military.
About The Author
