YANGON, Jul. 31 (Kyodo News): Myanmar's ruling military on Thursday lifted a state of emergency that it had imposed in the country for four-and-a-half years, a step required to hold a general election it plans to hold in the coming months, amid the ongoing civil war.

Since the Feb. 1, 2021, coup that ousted the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta had repeatedly extended the state of emergency due to the prolonged conflict between the military and opposition forces comprising pro-democracy citizens who have taken up arms and ethnic minority militias.

Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun said, "The country needs to move toward a multiparty democratic system," in an audio released to reporters, after the National Defense and Security Council -- the country's supreme decision-making body, which includes junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing -- decided to lift the state of emergency.

The military will effectively exclude the party of Suu Kyi, who remains under detention, from the election. Her party, the National League for Democracy, secured a landslide victory in the 2020 general election, but it was dissolved by a junta-appointed electoral commission in 2023.

Photo from Reuters