Myanmar junta lifts emergency rules, paving way for elections
Myanmar's military leadership on July 31 lifted a state of emergency more than four years after it took power in a coup, a necessary step for holding elections later in 2025.
The decision, announced by the junta after a meeting of the National Defence and Security Council, comes as civil war continues to engulf the South-east Asian nation. Under Myanmar's 2008 Constitution, emergency rules must be lifted before elections can be held, which the junta had pledged to do in December.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing also announced the formation of 30-member Union Government, appointing his aide Nyo Saw as prime minister.
The move comes as Myanmar's military faces a collapsing economy and growing resistance from pro-democracy armed groups.
The council decided in its last meeting, in January, to extend the state of emergency until July 31, saying at the time that 'there is a need for stability to ensure a free and fair general election'.
Western governments, including the US, have dismissed any junta-organised elections as illegitimate.
Earlier this week,
the military enacted a law it said was designed to protect the electoral process from 'sabotage,' with punishments including the death penalty for disrupting elections.
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General Min Aung Hlaing has claimed the 2020 election – won by civilian leader and pro-democracy figure Aung San Suu Kyi – was tainted by interference and fraud, the key justification
used by the military to seize power .
In
a letter to President Donald Trump earlier in July, he likened the situation to Mr Trump's false claims of US election fraud in 2020, suggesting both were victims of rigged votes.
Beyond the coup, the US and regional governments have accused Myanmar of harbouring so-called 'scam compounds' run by crypto crime syndicates and fueled by trafficked labor. In May, Washington
sanctioned a junta-linked militia for backing cyber scams 'on an industrial scale' that have cost Americans billions.
General Min Aung Hlaing said on July 30 that the country was entering a 'second chapter'.
'If at the start of this second chapter we write it well, beautifully, and sincerely with our own hands and carry it out successfully, I believe we will overcome even more challenges,' he said at a ceremony in the capital Naypyitaw, according to a government release. Bloomberg
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