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.

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.

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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.