MYANMAR’S opposition vowed today to resist military-organised elections after the government announced a six-month extension of its mandate to rule.

The military rulers said this was in preparation for elections they have promised will be held this year. However, they did not announce an exact date.

The military declared a state of emergency on February 1 2021, when it arrested the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and top government officials.

The coup sparked an armed resistance movement, with powerful ethnic minority militias and people’s defence forces that support Myanmar’s main opposition now controlling large parts of the country.

Moe Zaw Oo, a member of the opposition’s shadow National Unity Government, said on Wednesday that opposition groups were preparing to prevent the military-held election through non-violent means. 

The NUG, which calls itself the country’s legitimate government, serves as an opposition umbrella group.

“No-one from any organisation on our revolutionary forces side will accept the illegal election that the military is planning to hold. We may have differences of opinion on other issues, but the position among the revolutionary forces regarding this election issue is unified and clear,” Moe Zaw Oo said in an online news conference.