The daughters of two former prime ministers are aiming to join a new political party that is being set up to take part in next year’s elections, organizers said on Tuesday.
The planned Democratic Party will be established by a veteran politician once the ruling junta passes a party political registration law for the polls scheduled for some time next year.
Than Than Nu, 62, a daughter of the nation’s first prime minister, U Nu, said she would be the general secretary of the party.
She returned from India in 2003 after leaving the country with her parents in 1969. Her father led the then-Burma after it won independence from Britain in 1948, serving three separate terms. His final spell in government came when he was overthrown in 1962, starting a period of military rule that continues to this day. He died in 1995.
“We decided to take part in the coming elections as it is a chance for us and we expect to serve the country,” Than Than Nu said.
Nay Yee Ba Swe, a daughter of the second prime minister Ba Swe, and Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, a daughter of a late former deputy prime minister, would also join the party, organizers said.
Ba Swe served from 1956 to 1957 in between U Nu’s first and second terms.
“We have no right to say anything officially about the party as we have no party registration law and election law yet,” said veteran politician Thu Wai, 77, who will be the chairman of the party.
“But we took this risk as we wanted to serve the people. We will not have much time after they announce the laws,” he said.
Myanmar’s junta announced that it would hold elections next year after approving a controversial constitution in May last year.Critics say the polls are a sham designed to legitimize the junta’s iron grip on power.
The National League for Democracy of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has not said whether it will participate in next year’s polls. It won the 1990 elections, but was not allowed to take office.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but