Myanmar’s military government has declared the end of a state of emergency in parts of the country as it ramps up plans for elections, which opposition groups have pledged to boycott, and monitors warn will be used to consolidate the military’s hold on power under leader Min Aung Hlaing.
Military government spokesperson Zaw Min Tun made the announcement on Thursday, four and a half years after the military deposed the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup, sparking a multisided civil war that has killed thousands of people.
“The state of emergency is abolished today in order for the country to hold elections on the path to a multiparty democracy,” Zaw Min Tun said in a voice message shared with reporters.
Just hours later, however, Myanmar state TV reported that the country would impose martial law and a state of emergency in nine of the nation’s 14 regions and states due to concerns over armed violence and rebellion.
Zaw Min Tun also said in his message that “elections will be held within six months”.
Those elections will take place in both December and January due to security concerns, state broadcaster MRTV reported in its nightly news bulletin, saying that General Min Aung Hlaing, the armed forces chief who leads Myanmar, made the remarks at a meeting of the country’s defence and security chiefs.
An order signed by Min Aung Hlaing, who led the February 2021 coup, cancelled the emergency rule that handed power to him as the armed forces chief, instead returning it to the head of state.
However, Min Aung Hlaing, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity against the Muslim Rohingya minority, also occupies the position of head of state as acting president, so the order he signed essentially gives him the same powers to determine when the elections will be held and which parties may take part in the process.
“We have already passed the first chapter,” Min Aung Hlaing was quoted by The Global New Light of Myanmar, a government-owned newspaper, as saying.
“Now, we are starting the second chapter,” he told members of the military government’s administration council at what the newspaper called an “honorary ceremony” for its members.
On Thursday, state broadcaster MRTV also reported that the general will lead the 11-member commission that will supervise the election.
Min Aung Hlaing has recently touted elections as an off-ramp from the conflict.
Opposition groups, including former lawmakers deposed in the coup, have pledged to snub the poll, which a United Nations expert last month dismissed as “a fraud” designed to legitimise the military’s continuing rule.
The military seized power after making unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the 2020 elections, which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate remains jailed along with the party’s other top leaders.
Analysts predicted that despite the promised elections, Min Aung Hlaing will likely keep his role as either president or armed forces chief and will consolidate power in that office, thereby extending his tenure as de facto ruler.
A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said Beijing supports “Myanmar’s various parties and factions properly resolving differences through political means under the constitutional and legal framework”.
Political parties are currently being registered, while training sessions on electronic voting machines have already taken place.
