(Rangoon) The ruling army has extended for another six months the state of emergency in Burma (Myanmar), in force since the February 2021 coup, official media said on Monday.
Posted yesterday at 11:21 p.m.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, in place since the putsch, asked members of the military government “to leave him in office for six more months”, until February 2023, according to the report. Global New Light of Myanmar.
The eleven members of the National Defense and Security Council “unanimously supported his proposal”, the state daily reported.
The junta declared a state of emergency, which gives it full powers, in the wake of the coup d’etat of 1er February 2021 which overthrew civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The army justified its coup by citing massive fraud in the general election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), in November 2020. It also promised a new vote within a year.
As the country was mired in civil conflict, she later renewed her commitment and assured that the state of emergency would be lifted by August 2023.
In a speech broadcast Monday morning, Min Aung Hlaing did not mention a date. He said Burma first needed to be “peaceful and stable” to hold elections.
The general spoke of a “reform” of the electoral system, replacing the single-member majority ballot which favored the LND, with a proportional mode.
The Burmese junta, regularly accused of atrocities, continues a bloody repression against its opponents with more than 2,000 civilians killed and more than 15,000 arrested since the coup, according to a local NGO.
Arrested at the time of the putsch, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, faces several charges that could earn her up to 150 years in prison in total.