Bangkok (EFE).- Myanmar’s military junta lifted the country’s state of emergency on Thursday, paving the way for the first general election since the 2021 coup to be held at the end of the year.
The country’s military chief General Min Aung Hlaing, who appointed himself Myanmar’s leader after the coup, announced that the election will take place in December, but did not specify a date, according to the state New Global Light of Myanmar newspaper.
«Looking ahead, I encourage everyone to continue to unite and help one another achieve success in the journeys we still have to undertake (…) We have already passed the first chapter. Now, we are starting the second chapter,» he said during a ceremony held in Naypyidaw on Wednesday morning.
The holding of an election became possible with Thursday’s lifting of the state of emergency, which junta declared after the coup and has since been repeatedly renewed, under which the armed forces have maintained full executive and legislative powers. The decree was set to expire Thursday.
In a brief message sent to EFE, the military junta spokesman, General Zaw Min Tun, announced the end of the state of emergency and the holding of the election within the next six months.
In a series of statements, the junta also announced the dissolution of the State Administration Council, the formal name of the junta administration, and the creation of a commission, headed by Min Aung Hlaing, to lead the transition period leading up to the elections.
«The commission will continue to deal with national defense, security, and general elections,» one text said.
Min Aung Hlaing hands over the post of interim prime minister to General Nyo Saw, and assumes the country’s temporary presidency while remaining head of the armed forces, according to the statements.
In recent days, the junta has enacted a battery of laws to punish those who obstruct or attempt to destroy the electoral process through various means with punishments from imprisonment to the death penalty, according to the state newspaper.
The election announcement comes despite past warnings by rights groups and the opposition that any election would be a sham.
The National Unity Government (NUG), made up in part of representatives from the legislature that was supposed to be formed on the day of the coup and which declares itself the legitimate authority of Myanmar, has said the junta does not have the right or the authority to call elections, saying the election results of 2020 remain legitimate and any new ones would be “fraudulent.”
Human Rights Watch also called them “sham elections that will only serve to legitimize military control,” adding that the junta does not have enough control of the country to hold credible polls.
The coup ended a decade of democratic transition in the country, led from 2016 to 2021 by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, detained since the military uprising, and plunged Myanmar into conflict and semi-anarchy.
The rejection of the military leadership sparked a protest movement that morphed into an armed rebellion in which various rebel and pro-democracy groups are vying with the junta for control of territories.
Although the junta has been inviting the guerrillas to negotiate for months, with Chinese mediation, the majority have rejected it. EFE
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