Three years after coup, Myanmar junta extends state of emergency again

The Myanmar military regime announced on Tuesday that it was extending a state of emergency, which initially went into effect when it seized power three years ago, for the fifth time. At a national security meeting held that day in Myanmar’s administrative capital of Naypyitaw, the junta’s top generals acknowledged that the state of emergency had to be extended by another six months because the country was “not in a normal condition.” The military council released a statement on Wednesday night citing remarks form junta chief Sr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, who had told the assembled regime officials that extending the state of emergency under section 425 of the military-drafted 2008 Constitution was necessary to expedite the restoration of a peaceful and normal situation in Myanmar. After Min Aung Hlaing addressed the generals, acting military-appointed president Myint Swe announced the six-month extension of the state of emergency, saying it would enable counterterrorism operations amid ongoing abnormal conditions in the country, according to the military council’s statement. On the same day the military council announced the extension, Min Aung Hlaing delivered a speech via a regime-run television network vowing the military would do “whatever it takes to restore stability” in the country. The military has suffered a series of defeats in the past three months in clashes with anti-junta forces, including an alliance of ethnic armed groups that launched a coordinated offensive in late October. Despite a agreeing to a Chinese-brokered ceasefire with the alliance in January, the military has continued to come under attack by other anti-junta armed groups throughout the country. The Myanmar military carried out a coup on February 1, 2021, overthrowing the elected administration of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party on the pretext of alleged vote fraud in the general election of November 2020. The junta then arrested and brought charges—dismissed as fabrications by international observers—against top officials of the NLD government, including state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and president Win Myint. Facing a growing civil disobedience movement and armed resistance in response to its coup, the regime blamed its opponents for the escalation of violence throughout Myanmar as it cracked down violently on peaceful demonstrations opposing its rule. In its statement on the extension of the state of emergency, the military council also pointed to the prospect of holding elections in the near future as one of the necessary steps to return to a “normal situation” in the country. The military-drafted 2008 Constitution—which the junta cited in prolonging its emergency powers—also stipulates that elections must be held within six months after a state of emergency ends. The military council has claimed it intends to hold elections before, blaming the ongoing conflict throughout Myanmar for repeated delays in preparations. The junta’s opponents have dismissed the coup regime’s ostensible preparations for elections as a facade and argued that any elections the regime organised would be an illegitimate “sham” after its ouster of a duly elected government. The regime-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM) reported last Thursday that the military council had accepted a request from Thein Soe, chair of the junta-run election commission, to retire from the position. Thein Soe, 72, is a former major general and served as the first head of the Union Election Commission when it was created in 2010. He was reappointed to the chairmanship after the military seized power in 2021. The European Union and United States Treasury Department imposed sanctions against Thein Soe in 2022 for his role in legitimising unsubstantiated allegations of vote fraud that the military used as a pretext to depose the NLD government. Myanmar Now is still investigating the background of U Ko Ko, Thein Soe’s replacement as the election commission chair. It remains unclear how U Ko Ko’s chairmanship may affect the election commission’s function or whether the decision to replace Thein Soe was solely due to his health, as GNLM reported. The junta changed the requirements for registering political parties with the regime-controlled election commission in January of last year, effectively allowing its supporters and proxy parties to continue organising while creating a pretext to dissolve the NLD and other parties opposed to military rule.

Three years after coup, Myanmar junta extends state of emergency again

The military council has repeatedly cited ongoing violence throughout the country in prolonging the state of emergency, saying it can only end when Myanmar returns to a ‘normal condition’

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