Myanmar junta leader declares himself PM as election timeline stalled

Six months after seizing power, Min Aung Hlaing extends coup with promise of elections in 2023

General Min Aung Hlaing at an event in Moscow in June. Photograph: Reuters

Guardian staff and agencies-Sun 1 Aug 2021 

Myanmar’s military leader has declared himself prime minister and said he will lead the country under the nation’s state of emergency until elections are held in two years’ time – vastly extending the timeline given when the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi six months ago.

“We must create conditions to hold a free and fair multiparty general election,” Gen Min Aung Hlaing said on Sunday during a recorded televised address. “We have to make preparations. I pledge to hold the multiparty general election without fail.”

He said the state of emergency would achieve its objectives by August 2023. In a separate announcement, the military government named itself “the caretaker government” and Min Aung Hlaing the prime minister.

The general’s announcement would place Myanmar in the military’s grip for nearly two-and-a-half years, instead of the initial one year the junta announced days after the coup.

The state of emergency was declared when troops moved against the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February, a move the generals said was permitted under the military-authored 2008 constitution. The military claimed her landslide victory in last year’s national elections was achieved through massive voter fraud but offered no credible evidence.

The military government officially annulled the election results last Tuesday and appointed a new election commission to take charge of the polls.

The military takeover was met with massive public protests, resulting in a deadly crackdown by security forces who routinely fire live ammunition into crowds. As of Sunday, at least 939 people had been killed by the authorities since 1 February, according to a tally kept by the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Casualties are also rising among the military and police as armed resistance grows in urban and rural areas.

Moves by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to broker a dialogue between the military government and its opponents have stalled after an agreement at an April summit in Jakarta to appoint a special envoy for Myanmar.

 

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Min Aung Hlaing said that among the three nominees, Thailand’s former deputy foreign minister Virasakdi Futrakul was selected as the envoy. “But for various reasons, new proposals were released and we could not keep moving onwards,” he said. “I would like to say that Myanmar is ready to work on Asean cooperation within the Asean framework, including the dialogue with the Asean special envoy in Myanmar,” he said.

Asean foreign ministers were expected to discuss Myanmar in virtual meetings this week hosted by Brunei, the current chair of the 10-nation bloc.

Myanmar is also struggling with its worst Covid-19 outbreak, which has overwhelmed its already crippled healthcare system. Limitations on oxygen sales have led to widespread allegations that the military is directing supplies to government supporters and military-run hospitals.

At the same time, medical workers have been targeted by authorities after spearheading a civil disobedience movement that urged professionals and civil servants not to cooperate with the government.

Min Aung Hlaing blamed the public’s mistrust in the military’s efforts to control the outbreak on “fake news and misinformation via social networks” and accused those behind it of using Covid-19 “as a tool of bioterrorism”.