Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has ruled Myanmar by force since staging a 2021 coup deposing the democratic government of Aung San Suu Kyi and plunging the country into civil war.
The military concluded a heavily restricted election last month in the limited areas it controls, saying the vote will return power to the people when parliament convenes in late March.
With Suu Kyi detained and her party dissolved, rights experts say the junta orchestrated the vote to secure a walkover win for its civilian allies.
Analysts say the incoming government will prolong military rule in a civilian disguise, with lawmakers tethered tightly to the will of the top brass.
State media published a notice on Wednesday announcing the formation of the Union Consultative Council to advise the president on “security and the rule of law, international relations, peacebuilding and legislation”.
While no names have been announced for the council, analyst Naing Min Khant said armed forces chief Min Aung Hlaing could opt to chair it, potentially giving him a formal perch in the civilian government.
“This structure appears to be the senior general’s strategy to consolidate power”, the analyst of the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar think tank told AFP.
Being chair would allow “Min Aung Hlaing to retain his role as commander-in-chief while wielding supreme civilian authority”, and “the president’s role will likely be reduced to mere administrative execution”, he said.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military for most of its post-independence history. Even during its tentative decade-long experiment with civilian politics starting in 2011, generals wielded immense power.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi was blocked from serving as president by military-drafted legislation forbidding the office to those whose spouses or children are foreign citizens.
But she founded a “state counsellor” office, making her the power behind the throne of the president.
Naing Min Khant said the junta-founded council is a “dark mirror” of that arrangement.
“Both were engineered to circumvent constitutional barriers to leadership — one created for a civilian barred from the presidency, the other for a general who refuses to relinquish military command.”
“The fundamental difference is accountability,” he added, arguing the new council would operate “in a vacuum without any legislative oversight or democratic checks and balances”.
The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party won a landslide victory in Myanmar’s elections, allowing it to pick the president.
Min Aung Hlaing has not ruled out taking over that role directly, although that would require him to surrender his command of the armed forces — historically the nation’s most powerful institution.