Myanmar forms interim government before election but top general still in charge

Myanmar's military on Thursday nominally transferred power to a civilian-led interim government ahead of a planned December election, with the junta chief remaining in charge of the war-torn country in his other role as acting president.

An announcement in state media said a decree that granted power to the military after its 2021 coup had been cancelled and a caretaker administration had been formed alongside a special commission to oversee the election.

The move signals no change to the status quo in Myanmar, with coup leader Min Aung Hlaing holding on to all major levers of power as acting president while retaining his position as chief of the armed forces.

A state of emergency in place since the coup, which was due to expire on Thursday after seven extensions, has now been lifted, said Zaw Min Tun, a government spokesperson.

"The interim president and commander in chief said this upcoming six months are the time to prepare and host the election," he told state media.

Myanmar has been in chaos since the coup against Aung San Suu Kyi's elected civilian government plunged the Southeast Asian nation into civil war, with the military fighting to contain a rebellion and accused of widespread atrocities, which it denies.

The election has been dismissed by Western governments as a sham to entrench the generals' power and is expected to be dominated by proxies of the military, with opposition groups either barred from running or refusing to take part.

David Mathieson, an independent Myanmar-focused analyst, said the change in power was cosmetic and those in charge would continue to be abusive and repressive.

"They are just rearranging the same pieces and calling the regime a new name," he said. "Nothing will change in the near term, but this is part of preparations for an election which we don't know much about."

War raging

The extent of the civil war's impact on the planned election remains unclear. In an effort to create voter rolls, the junta held a nationwide census last year but was only about to conduct it in 145 out of Myanmar's 330 townships - reflecting its lack of control over swathes of the country.

Established ethnic minority armies and new armed groups have mounted an unprecedented resistance against the military, gaining control of significant territory, including much of the country's borderlands.

China's foreign ministry said on Thursday it supported Myanmar's efforts to achieve peace and reconciliation.

"China supports Myanmar's development path in line with its national conditions and Myanmar's steady advancement of its domestic political agenda," spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.

The military has killed more than 6,000 people and arbitrarily detained over 20,000 since the coup, according to Amnesty International. Myanmar has also seen a return to judicial executions and more than 3.5 million people are internally displaced, an Amnesty report said in January.

Myanmar's military has dismissed allegations of abuses as Western disinformation.

It justified its 2021 coup as a necessary intervention following what it said was widespread fraud in an election three months earlier that was won decisively by Suu Kyi's now defunct ruling party.

Election monitoring organisations found no evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome.