Myanmar junta ends state of emergency in election run-up

Myanmar's junta chief military Min Aung Hlaing arrives to deliver a speech during a ceremony to mark the country's Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw on March 27, 2024. [AFP] 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 that 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 that Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won in a landslide. She remains jailed alongside their other top leaders. An order signed by Min Aung Hlaing cancelled the emergency rule that had 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. No exact date has been set for the poll, but Min Aung Hlaing confirmed it would take place in December, The Global New Light of Myanmar said. "Due to the security situation in the country, we will also hold the upcoming election in phases depending on security and management," he said, according to remarks paraphrased on state TV. In New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the plan to hold elections "amid ongoing conflict and human rights violations and without conditions including safety and security". He called for an end to violence, including aerial bombardment of civilians, and for relief workers to be given full access to address "enormous humanitarian needs exacerbated since the 28th of March earthquakes," Guterres' spokesman Farhan Haq told a daily briefing. A flurry of notices announced that a new "Union Government" had been formed alongside a "National Security and Peace Commission" to oversee defence and the election process, with members appointed by Min Aung Hlaing. Analysts predict that following the vote, he will remain president, armed forces chief or assume another new powerful role and consolidate control in that office, extending his tenure as de facto ruler. "It's the same people still in charge of everything," Morgan Michaels, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, told AFP. "These guys are not planning to just hand over power back to the civilians." Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said "the state of emergency is abolished today in order for the country to hold elections on the path to a multi-party democracy". However, the junta later announced a 90-day state of emergency in 63 townships, most of them conflict zones or areas under the control of anti-junta groups. This month the junta began offering cash rewards to rebels willing to lay down their arms and "return to the legal fold" ahead of the vote. As emergency law was ended, the junta sent out mass text messages inviting armed groups "to work together for the benefit of the country". The military government said Wednesday it had 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". The foreign ministry 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". Political parties are already being registered while training sessions on electronic voting machines have already taken place. But 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.

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