Myanmar military govt extends emergency rule for six months

Myanmar’s military government on Friday announced another six-month extension of its mandate to rule in preparation for elections, as the country enters its fifth year of the crisis.

The military had declared a state of emergency on February 1, 2021, when it arrested the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and top officials from her government in an army takeover that reversed years of progress toward democracy after five decades of earlier military rule.

The current military government has said that elections in the country would be held this year, but an exact date for the polls hasn’t been announced so far.

State-run MRTV reported on Friday that the National Defence and Security Council decided unanimously to grant an extension of emergency rule after Senior Gen Ming Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, argued that more time was needed to restore stability to hold national elections.

Under the army-drafted 2008 Constitution, the military was able to rule the country under a state of emergency for one year, followed by two possible six-month extensions before holding elections. However, the extension on Friday is the seventh.

Tom Andrews, a special rapporteur with the UN Human Rights Office, said in a statement on Thursday that four years of military oppression, violence and incompetence have cast Myanmar into an abyss. The United Nations has estimated that more than 3.5 million people have been displaced by the conflict.