Myanmar extends state of emergency
The leader of Myanmar’s military-installed government on Monday announced the extension of its mandate to rule for another six months in preparation for an election it has said will be held next year.
The army seized power on February 1 last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. It cited alleged fraud in the November 2020 general election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party had won in a landslide while the militarybacked party did poorly.
Independent election observers said they found no evidence of substantive irregularities, and the army takeover was met with widespread non-violent protests around the country.
Security forces used deadly force to disperse them, prompting armed resistance by the prodemocracy forces. The escalation of violence has since plunged Myanmar into what UN experts have described as a civil war.
Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, head of the ruling State Administration Council, said in a broadcast speech on Monday that the state of emergency declared after last year’s takeover was extended because time was needed to prepare for new elections, or as the official announcement of the extension said, “to continue working to return the country to the path of a peaceful and disciplined multiparty democratic system and to hold multiparty democratic general elections”.
The military originally declared that new polls would
be held a year after its takeover, but later said they would take place in 2023.
There is considerable doubt they will be free and fair, because most of the leaders of Suu Kyi’s party have been locked up.
Asean ministers to push for tougher action
Malaysia is set to lead a push for tougher action on Myanmar when a regional bloc of foreign ministers meet this week, as anger mounts at the junta for stonewalling crisis resolution efforts. Ministers meeting in Phnom Penh from Wednesday are expected to lament the lack of progress on Asean’s “fivepoint consensus” plan, agreed to in April last year, which called for an immediate end to violence and dialogue between the junta and coup opponents.
As well as voicing “deep concern” about recent developments and calling for restraint, the ministers will also demand “concrete actions to effectively and fully implement the FivePoint Consensus”, according to a draft communique obtained by AFP.