According to reports from Myanmar’s official media on Monday (August 1), the leader of Myanmar’s junta, Min Aung Hlaing, will prolong the state of emergency in the country for an additional six months, and the junta’s national defence and security council has granted its permission for the extension.
After taking power from the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in February of the previous year, the junta first announced a period of emergency.
According to a report from the Global New Light of Myanmar, “the members (of the security council) unanimously backed the idea to prolong the length of the proclaimed state of emergency for another six months.”
The statement that “in our nation, we must continue to enhance the ‘true and disciplined multi-party democratic system,’ which is the aspiration of the people,” was attributed to Min Aung Hlaing and was published in this document.
Since the military takeover, Myanmar has been in a state of anarchy, with violence spreading throughout the Southeast Asian nation. This comes after the military put down generally peaceful demonstrations in the cities.
The military junta claimed that it had seized power due to widespread voter fraud in the general election held in November 2020, which Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s party convincingly won. Monitoring organisations of the election discovered no indication of widespread voter fraud.
The military has promised to organise fresh elections in August 2023, despite the fact that the timeline for holding the polls has already been pushed back, and opponents are sceptical that the elections would be free and fair.
, the leader of Myanmar's junta, Min Aung Hlaing, will prolong the state of emergency in the country for an additional six months, and the junta's national defence and security council has granted its permission for the extension.){kind=link}