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The junta’s announcement on state-run MRTV television on Wednesday said the National Defence and Security Council,which met on Tuesday,had extended the state of emergency for another six months because the country remained in an abnormal situation and time was needed to prepare for a peaceful and stable election. The NDSC is nominally a constitutional administrative government body,but in practice is controlled by the military.

“Although according to the section 425 of the constitution,[a state of emergency] can only be granted two times,the current situation is under unusual circumstances and it is suitable to extend it one more time of six months,” Acting President Myint Swe said at the meeting broadcast by MRTV.

Myanmar nationals living in Thailand gather for a protest marking the two-year anniversary of the military takeover outside the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok.Credit:AP

No exact date has been announced for the polls,though the head of the ruling military council,Senior General Min Aung Hlaing,has suggested they could be held in August. Wednesday’s report said the election would be held after accomplishing the provisions of the state of emergency.

It allows the military to assume all government functions,continuing Min Aung Hlaing legislative,judicial and executive powers.

The announcement,on the anniversary of the army’s seizure of power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi,will be seen as an admission that the army has failed to quell widespread opposition to military rule,which includes increasingly challenging armed resistance as well as non-violent protests and civil disobedience. State media said the NDSC meeting discussed how opposition groups were seeking to take power through “wrongful forcible means” including assassinations,bombings and destruction of state property.

The constitution stipulates that to hold an election,the military has to transfer government functions to the president,who heads the NDSC,six months before the polls,which currently would mean Myint Swe,an army ally.

Junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.Credit:AP

A spokesperson for the opposition’s underground National Unity Government,which acts as a shadow government opposed to army rule,said the extension was no surprise because they had expected the military would take some action to cement its control on the anniversary of its takeover.

Nay Phone Latt said in a text message that his group and its allies had the support of the public,whose determination would continue until “revolution” was achieved.

The military said its 2021 takeover was prompted by massive voting fraud in a November 2020 general election,though independent election observers did not find any major irregularities. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory for a second term in the election,humiliating the military-backed opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Critics say the military-planned election will be neither free nor fair because there is no free media and most of the leaders of Suu Kyi’s party have been arrested or gone into hiding or exile. Suu Kyi,77,is serving prison sentences totalling 33 years after being convicted in a series of politically tainted prosecutions brought by the military.

Last week,the military government enacted a new law on registration of political parties that makes it difficult for opposition groups to mount a serious challenge to army-backed candidates in a general election.

The National League for Democracy declared last November that it would not accept or recognise the military-planned election,which it described as “fake”. It said the polls were an attempt by the military to gain political legitimacy and international recognition.

Opposition militants have been attempting to disrupt preparations for the election by attacking personnel of the military government who are conducting a population survey that could be used to assemble voter rolls.