Myanmar junta ends state of emergency in election run-up
Myanmar's junta ended its state of emergency on Thursday, ramping up plans for a December election that opposition groups pledged to boycott and monitors said will be used to consolidate the military's power.
The military declared a state of emergency in February 2021 as it deposed the civilian government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a many-sided civil war which has claimed thousands of lives.
The order gave junta chief Min Aung Hlaing supreme power over the legislature, executive and judiciary -- but he has recently touted elections as an off-ramp to the conflict.
Opposition groups including ex-lawmakers ousted in the coup have pledged to snub the poll, which a UN expert last month dismissed as "a fraud" designed to legitimise the military's continuing rule.
The junta seized power making unsubstantiated claims of fraud in a 2020 election Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won in a landslide, and she remains jailed alongside their other top leaders.
"The state of emergency is abolished today in order for the country to hold elections on the path to a multi-party democracy," junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said in a voice message shared with reporters.
"Elections will be held within six months," he added.
An order signed by Min Aung Hlaing cancelled the emergency rule which handed power to him as the armed forces chief, returning it to the head of state.
However Min Aung Hlaing also occupies that office as the country's acting president.
"We have already passed the first chapter," Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech in Naypyidaw reported in state newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar on Thursday.
"Now, we are starting the second chapter," he told members of the junta's administration council at what the newspaper called an "honorary ceremony" for its members.
- No date set -
Analysts predict that following the election he will keep a role as either president or armed forces chief and consolidate power in that office, thereby extending his tenure as de facto ruler.
A flurry of notices announced a new "Union Government" had been formed alongside a "National Security and Peace Commission" to oversee defence and the election process, both led by Min Aung Hlaing.
"The upcoming election will be held this December, and efforts will be made to enable all eligible voters to cast their ballots," The Global New Light of Myanmar reported, paraphrasing another part of his speech.
A foreign ministry spokesman of junta ally China said Beijing supports "Myanmar's various parties and factions properly resolving differences through political means under the constitutional and legal framework".
No exact date for the poll has been announced by the junta, but political parties are being registered while training sessions on electronic voting machines have already taken place.
The military government said Wednesday it enacted a new law dictating prison sentences of up to 10 years for speech or protests aiming to "destroy a part of the electoral process".
A census held last year as preparation for the election estimated it failed to collect data from 19 million of the country's 51 million people, provisional results said.
The results cited "significant security constraints" as one reason for the shortfall -- giving a sign of how limited the reach of the election may be amid the civil war.
Analysts have predicted rebels will stage offensives around the election as a sign of their opposition.
But this month the junta began offering cash rewards to those willing to lay down their arms and "return to the legal fold" ahead of the vote.
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