Myanmar Military Junta Extends Emergency Status For Six Months To Prepare For Elections

Myanmar military junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (front). (Wikimedia Commons/Mil ru)

The ruling military junta in Myanmar has decided to extend the country's state of emergency in the next six months, state media reported on Friday.

Announcement of a day before the fourth anniversary of the coup that plunged the Land of a Thousand Pagodas into chaos after a decade of tentative democracy.

The military junta plans to hold elections this year, which critics have ridiculed as a trick to defend the generals' power through proxies.

"There are still many tasks that must be done to hold a successful general election. Especially for free and fair elections, stability and peace are still needed," said the state-run MRTV on its Telegram channel when announcing an extension of its emergency status.

The election date has not yet been set, but the military junta is moving forward with plans, although it is struggling to run the country while trying to fend off armed insurgencies rooted in youth-led insurgencies in various fields crushed by the military with lethal force.

It is known that Myanmar has been confined to a civil war triggered by the overthrow of the elected civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi by the military.

Fighting has left about three million people displaced, with food insecurity widespread and a third of the population needing humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations, whose special envoys have urged all parties to seek dialogue and move forward through their "zero-sum mentality".

Despite fighting, a devastated economy and dozens of political parties are prohibited or refusing to take part, the military junta is determined to hold elections.

Opponents of the military government plan to disrupt the vote and have urged other countries not to recognize the outcome, saying elections would be held against the will of the people.