A total of 63 political parties have applied to the Union Election Commission (UEC) for registration in accord with the new Political Parties Registration Law with the intention of continuing to exist as political parties and running for the election to be held by the State Administration Council (SAC).
This is the list of their applications available till March 28. According to the UEC, there had been 13 parties that applied for registration in accord with section 3 of the law and 50 others in accord with section 25 of the law.
The SAC enacted the Political Parties Registration Law on 26 January and the rules for the registration of political parties on 31 January this year.
The new law states that if the existing political parties wish to continue as political parties, they must re-apply for party registration to the commission within 60 days from the date of the enactment of the law. If a party fails to re-apply, it will be automatically null and void.
The UEC announced that it would receive applications for registration until March 28.
Among the existing 90 political parties covered under section 25 of the law, 50 parties have applied for the right to continue to exist as they are until March 28 when the specified period of 60 days was over.
Therefore, more than half of the existing 90 parties have come to apply for re-registration.
The commission also announced that there were 13 parties that had applied for their establishment until March 28 according to section 3 of the law.
Section 3 of the law says that a group of at least 15 persons, who desire to organize and form a political party in the entire Union or only within a Region or a State, stating a desired name for the party, shall apply to the Commission for granting permission to organize party members in accord with the law.
Section 3 sub-section (b) of the law also says when receiving the application the Commission shall scrutinize the facts stated in the application and accept the application if it is found in conformity with the law. Otherwise, the application shall be refused if it is found not in conformity with the law.
The persons who are desirous of forming a party shall elect one leader and one deputy leader among them, when permission is granted under the Sub-section (b).
When it comes to the qualifications that the persons desirous of forming a party require, they must be a Myanmar citizen who has attained 25 years of age. But they must not be a member of the religious order, a civil servant, a convict, a member of an insurgent organization, a terrorist organization or an organization declared by the State as an unlawful association. They must not be involved with any offence under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law. They must not be foreigners or they must not have assumed foreigner citizenship.
However, the UEC announced on March 28th that it would continue to allow applications for the establishment and registration of new political parties.
What is more interesting is that the UEC said among those 63 parties, 12 will conduct their election campaigns across the union while 51 others will canvass in their respective single regions or states,
Previously, out of the existing 91 parties, 74 parties would conduct their election campaigns across the union while 18 others would canvass in their respective regions or states.
In comparison, the number of political parties that will conduct election campaigns across the country has significantly decreased. It can therefore be said that the aim of the SAC has been realized because it seems to reduce a bloated number of political parties.
Political analysts point out that that might have been due to the new registration law passed by the SAC.
Section 5 (f) of the new law states a party needs to organize at least 100,000 party members within 90 days from the day of permission granted for registration as a political party if it is to organize throughout the entire Union. And it is a major headache for party leaders.
Meanwhile, section 5 (g) says a party that is due to campaign in the whole Union must show evidence that it has opened a deposit account of 100 million kyats at a branch of Myanma Economic Bank.
Section 5 (h) also requires a party at the union level to open party offices in at least half of all the townships across the country within 180 days. What’s more, they will not be allowed to continue to exist as political parties unless they can stand for election in half of all the constituencies across the country.
Political analysts have commented that such strict restrictions will make the number of parties due to conduct election campaigns in the whole Union decrease. Actually, the number has significantly decreased.
Yet, the number of political parties that will canvass for votes has increased.
The main reason is the new registration law. Section 5 (f) also states a party needs to organize at least 1,000 party members if it is to organize in a region or state. It also needs to show evidence that it has opened a deposit account of just 10 million kyats at a branch of Myanma Economic Bank. For party office opening also, it only needs to open party offices in at least five of all the townships of that region or state.
Currently, many of the existing union-level political parties have applied for registration as region/state-level ones.
For example, the political parties that have changed from the union level to the region/state level include the Arakan Front Party led by former Upper House representative Dr Aye Maung, New National Democracy Party led by former SAC member U Thein Nyunt, and Mon Unity Party which is an alliance of various Mon parties.
Another thing is that the UEC has announced that a total of 40 political parties have been cancelled from registration and dissolved as they failed to apply for re-registration.
Among those dissolved are the National League for Democracy hugely supported by the people, and Shan National League for Democracy, the most power ethnic party.
Both internal entities and the international community are strongly denouncing the UEC’s decision to abolish those parties.
There are 63 parties that have applied to the UEC for registration, but they have yet to receive registrations as their applications are still under scrutiny.
Moreover, we have to wait and see which political parties will come to register as new party establishment is still allowed.
