Myanmar’s junta yesterday took another major step in its ongoing campaign to cripple its political opponents, dissolving dozens of opposition parties including that of ousted Burmese state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to meet a registration deadline ahead of elections.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) was one of 40 parties ordered dissolved in an official statement by the Burmese Union Election Commission published on state-controlled media.
The NLD governed Myanmar with overwhelming majorities in parliament from 2015 to 2021 before being overthrown by the military.
Photo: REUTERS
The NLD had already announced that it would not register, denouncing the promised polls as a sham.
The party, and other critics, say that the still-unscheduled polls would be neither free nor fair in a military-ruled country that has shut free media and arrested most of the leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party.
The NLD won a landslide victory in November 2020 elections, but in February 2021, the army blocked all elected lawmakers from taking their seats in parliament and seized power, detaining top members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government and party.
The army takeover was met with widespread popular opposition. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are embroiled in conflict.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, is serving prison sentences totaling 33 years after being convicted in a series of politically tainted prosecutions brought by the military.
Her supporters say the charges were contrived to prevent her from participating in politics.
Kyaw Htwe, a member of the NLD’s Central Working Committee, on Tuesday said that the party’s existence does not depend on what the military decides, and it “will exist as long as the people support it.”
His statement was a reference to a message Aung San Suu Kyi sent to her supporters through her lawyers in May 2021, when she appeared in court in person for the first time after the military seized power.
She said: “Since the NLD was founded for the people, the NLD will exist as long as the people exist.”
“The party will continue to fulfill the responsibilities entrusted by the people,” Kyaw Htwe said.
The army said it staged its 2021 takeover because of massive election fraud, although independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.
Some critics of Burmese Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who led the takeover and is now Myanmar’s top leader, believe he acted because the vote thwarted his own political ambitions.
The new polls had been expected by the end of July, but in February, the military announced a six-month extension of its state of emergency, delaying the possible legal date for holding an election.
It said security could not be assured.
“Amid the state oppression following the 2021 coup, no election can be credible, especially when much of the population sees a vote as a cynical attempt to supplant the landslide victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in 2020,” a report issued on Tuesday by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank said. “The polls will almost certainly intensify the post-coup conflict, as the regime seeks to force them through and resistance groups seek to disrupt them.”
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
RSS