Junta chief says Myanmar’s next election may not be nationwide

(Reuters) – Military-ruled Myanmar plans to hold elections once there is peace and stability in the country, but may not be able to hold nationwide elections, its top general said, as the junta struggles to quell an insurgency on multiple fronts. Is struggling for.

The military, which has been in power since a coup three years ago, still plans to return the country to democratic rule, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing told Russia, according to a transcript of an interview carried by Myanmar state media. Told Tass news agency.

The generals face their biggest challenge since they first took power in the former British colony in 1962, with a youth-led pro-democracy rebellion turning into an armed resistance movement after a deadly crackdown on a wave of protests. .

The army is reliving some of its oldest battles with ethnic minority forces in northern and eastern Myanmar and has been accused by opponents of carrying out systematic atrocities, which it denies.

Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying, “If the state is peaceful and stable, we have plans to hold elections as soon as possible in the relevant jurisdictions, even if elections are not held within the law nationwide.”

The junta has repeatedly extended emergency rule every six months, citing the need to stabilize the country and crush its opponents, whom it describes as terrorists.

It has deployed heavy artillery and fighter jets to try to suppress the shadow government and militias allied with ethnic minority rebels, with more than 2.3 million people displaced since unrest broke out in the wake of the coup, according to the United Nations.

Critics and Western countries have said Myanmar’s elections will be a sham, with more than 40 parties having dissolved since the coup and restrictive rules making it difficult for newcomers to form or challenge the military.

(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Martin Petty and Miral Fahmy)

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