Coup leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said Myanmar will hold elections for the first time since the military seized power in 2021 if the junta can bring peace and stability to the country, Russian media reported.
But in an interview with the ITAR-TASS news agency, republished by pro-junta media, he admitted that nationwide elections may not be possible.
“If the State is peaceful and stable, we have a plan to hold the election in relevant sections as much as we can even if the election is not held nationwide under the law,” Min Aung Hlaing said, during the interview in Yangon on March 18.
After staging the coup coup d’état on the pretext of voter fraud and incorrect voter registration lists, the junta has not held elections for more than three years.
The junta extended a state of emergency for another six months on Feb. 1, and achieving the peace and stability needed to end it appears to be a distant goal following a coordinated campaign by the country’s ethnic armies from the end of last year.
Since the Three Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armies launched Operation 1027 in October and the Karenni Ethnic Armed Organizations staged Operation 1111 from November, the military’s territories have decreased across the country’s ethnic states and even in areas like Sagaing traditionally occupied by the Bamar ethnic majority.
Operating across Rakhine, Shan and Chin states, allied ethnic armies have taken significant territories in the country’s west and north. As of March 17, the Arakan Army controlled eight townships across Rakhine state and one to the north in Chin state.
Since China brokered a ceasefire between the junta and alliance in early January, the Kachin Independence Army has stepped into the fray in Kachin state, claiming to have captured more than 40 junta camps as of Wednesday.
Myanmar Democratic Party chairwoman Than Than Nu told Radio Free Asia that even holding an election in more peaceful parts of the country may be challenging.
“Partial elections like this also exist in India due to … the political situation,” she said.
“If the elections were to be held in Myanmar like this too, one thing that needs to be emphasized is the security situation in places where the election would be held.”
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.
