Bangkok, Mar 25 (EFE).- Myanmar’s military regime plans to hold elections but only in some regions, the junta chief has said, without specifying a date and with a precondition that there is peace and stability.
Min Aung Hlaing, the self-proclaimed prime minister, expressed his willingness to hold non-nationwide polls in an interview with the Russian state news agency Tass.
“If the state is peaceful and stable, we have a plan to hold the election in relevant sections as much as we can even if the election is not held nationwide under the law,” he said in the interview, according to a transcript by Myanmar’s state media.
The military regime, which has systematically extended the state of emergency declared since the February 2021 coup, is battling to contain a rebellion by ethnic guerrillas who have managed to wrest control of more than 20 towns from the army on multi-fronts since October last year.
During the interview last week in Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing again defended the coup d’état due to the alleged massive fraud during the November 2020 general elections.
The party led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi swept the polls as it did in 2015.
The opposition National Unity Government and human rights bodies have described the attempts by the Myanmar military to hold elections as a “farce.”
Since the military uprising, more than 2.3 million people have been displaced by the armed conflicts plaguing the country.
Over 4,770 civilians have been killed in the alleged brutal repression by Myanmar security forces against pro-democracy activists, according to data from the Myanmar NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. EFE
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