The junta had been unable to hold fresh polls as planned following an initial two-year state of emergency “due to the terrorist acts” by its opponents, broadcaster MRTV reported.
All the members of the junta-stacked National Defence and Security Council “unanimously decided to extend the period of the state of emergency for another six months”, MRTV said.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing had proposed the extension “in order to prepare valid and accurate ballots” for the election the junta has promised to hold, possibly in 2025.
The extension was also needed to “carry out the population census and in order to continue the implementation of the work to be done”, MRTV said.
Under the military-drafted 2008 constitution, which the junta has said is still in force, authorities are required to hold fresh elections within six months of a state of emergency being lifted.
BATTLEFIELD DEFEATS
The military seized power after making unsubstantiated allegations of fraud in the 2020 elections which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide.
It has extended the state of emergency multiple times since as it battles established ethnic minority armed groups and newer pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces”.
In recent months it has suffered a string of battlefield defeats to an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups in the north and west of the country.
Last week the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) claimed it had seized the northern town of Lashio, which sits on a vital trade highway to China and is home to the military’s northeastern command.
The junta denied the claim.
The loss of Lashio and the regional military command would be a huge blow to the junta, which has lost territory to the MNDAA and other armed groups in recent weeks.