Myanmar's first functioning parliament in nearly 50 years only serves to further institutionalise the military.

In an address to mark a national holiday last month, the head of the Myanmar military, Senior General Than Shwe, painted a rosy picture of emerging democratic reform in his country.

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Printed in full on the front pages of the state-run press, Than Shwe’s speech called on Myanmar, also known as Burma, to protect a brand new political system built around the country’s first functioning parliament in nearly half a century.

“The democracy system introduced to the Union of Myanmar is still in its infancy,” he warned.

But following widely criticised elections in November that failed to change the top of Myanmar’s political hierarchy, observers say that far from experiencing a new beginning, democracy in the country remains as distant a prospect as ever.

Photographs marking Myanmar's Union Day in February testify to the fact that while the country’s political landscape has in some ways transformed in the past year, overall little has changed. In a ceremony to mark the holiday, Than Shwe is seen shaking hands at the very centre of a circle of Myanmar’s new parliamentarians. Just behind the head of the military stands its number two, Vice Senior General Maung Aye, and further back still on the periphery of the action waits Prime Minister Thein Sein, head of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won November’s elections.

When the military finally hands over power to a civilian government on March 15, this triumvirate will continue unchanged at the top of the country’s political hierarchy. Positioning himself as the head of a new all-powerful State Supreme Council, according to reports from Myanmar’s exiled media, Than Shwe will remain the de facto head of state.

“If reports are correct that Than Shwe is chair of a Supreme Council (outside the constitution), that is significant because his personal power will continue and the chances of any major reform he does not endorse will be insignificant,” said Myanmar expert David Steinberg, author of Burma/Myanmar: What Everybody Needs to Know, published in 2010.

Maung Aye will also join this new elite body, while Thein Sein, a general up until last year when he removed his army green uniform, has been named as the council's president.

Myanmar’s fragmented opposition meanwhile, remains as divided as ever. Democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi was freed less than a week after polls closed, but her ability to influence Myanmar’s political landscape remains limited after years of house arrest and the decision of her National League for Democracy to boycott the elections.

The junta-backed USDP claimed close to 80% of seats in the new parliamentary structure – which includes a lower and upper house as well as a regional parliament to account for the many ethnic minorities in the country.  The main opposition National Democratic Force, a splinter group of Suu Kyi’s NLD, won around 3%. With the army automatically given 25% of seats, the space for Myanmar’s opposition is even smaller than was expected before the elections, said Suu Kyi.