Myanmar junta signals shift ahead of decision on emergency rule
YANGON: Myanmar's military leader said the country was entering a "second chapter,' signaling a potential shift ahead of a decision Thursday (Aug 1) on lifting the country's state of emergency - a necessary step for holding elections more than four years after a coup.
The decision, by the junta's 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 by December.
"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,' the leader, Min Aung Hlaing, said at a ceremony Wednesday in the capital Naypyidaw, according to a government release.
Western governments, including the US, have dismissed any junta-organised elections as being illegitimate. If the council lifts the state of emergency, it will assume transitional powers and is expected to form an interim authority to oversee the vote. Min Aung Hlaing could be appointed to lead that body.
Earlier this week, the military enacted a law it said was designed to to protect the electoral process from "sabotage,' with punishments including the death penalty for disrupting elections. - Bloomberg
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