Myanmar opposition party to have 60 days to register for polls

Yangon - Myanmar's main opposition party - the National League for Democracy (NLD) - is to have 60 days to register to contest a general election planned this year or face 'invalidation,' government sources said Tuesday.

The country's ruling junta on Monday announced five new laws to regulate a general election some time this year, the first polls the military-run country has seen since 1990.

Details of the laws are due to be published in the state-controlled press this week.

On Tuesday, the Myanmar-language state media ran copies of the law on the election commission that is to oversee the polls.

The commission is to be run by five appointed members who must be 'esteemed figures' in the eyes of the ruling junta.

A new law on political party registration, to be published in the local press on Wednesday, is to allow the NLD only 60 days to decide if it is to contest the upcoming polls, sources said.

'Political parties which are officially standing now according to the previous party registration law have to reapply again within 60 days from the issue date of the new law,' said a government official who requested anonymity.

'If they don't reapply for registration within 60 days, they will be automatically invalidated,' the source said.

The NLD has demanded in the past that the junta release its leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 2,100 other political prisoners before it would contest the polls.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, is currently serving an 18-month house detention sentence. She has spent 14 of the past 21 years under house arrest.

The NLD, which won the country's last general election in 1990 by a landslide but has been denied power for the past 20 years, has also called for amendments to the military-drafted 2008 constitution as a pre-condition for contesting the upcoming polls.

Myanmar's junta refused to transfer power to the NLD, claiming the country needed a new constitution before power could be handed to a civilian government.

A military-drafted charter was pushed through and approved by a plebiscite in May 2008. The new constitution cements the military's control over any elected government through the National Parliament, primarily an appointed body that has veto power over all legislation.

Source :http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1539591.php/Myanmar-opposition-party-to-have-60-days-to-register-for-polls