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Myanmar extends state of emergency by six months

By AFP
01 February 2023   |   2:14 pm
Myanmar's National Defence and Security Council have agreed to extend the country's state of emergency by six months, state media said Wednesday, likely delaying elections the junta had pledged to hold by August.

A man rides his trishaw an almost empty street during a “silent strike” to protest and mark the second anniversary of the military coup in Yangon on February 1, 2023. – Streets in commercial hub Yangon were largely emptied from late morning, AFP correspondents said, after activists called for people across the country to close businesses and stay indoors from 10 am (0330 GMT) to 4 pm. (Photo by STR / AFP)

Myanmar’s National Defence and Security Council have agreed to extend the country’s state of emergency by six months, state media said Wednesday, likely delaying elections the junta had pledged to hold by August.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing’s request to prolong the state of emergency declared when the generals toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February 2021 was granted, state broadcaster MRTV said.

The “state of emergency will be extended for another six months starting from February 1”, Acting President Myint Swe was quoted as saying.

“Sovereign power of the state has been transferred to the commander in chief again,” he added.

The state of emergency was due to expire at the end of January but on Tuesday the junta-stacked National Defence and Security Council met to discuss the state of the nation and concluded it “has not returned to normalcy yet”.

Junta opponents, including anti-coup “People’s Defence Forces” and a shadow government dominated by lawmakers from Suu Kyi’s party, had tried to seize “state power by means of unrest and violence”, the military’s information team said in a statement.

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