Except the yet announcement of a date for holding a multi-party general election this year, the first in two decades, Myanmar is speeding up its election preparatory process especially after the water festival.
According to the government-appointed Union Election Commission, since April 22, it has so far granted formation of 12 new political parties out of 27 seeking for the set-up and contest in the planned election.
Of the 27 new political parties seeking for registration to go to polls, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), led by Prime Minister U Thein Sein, applied to the commission on Thursday for the party formation.
For election purpose, U Thein Sein has quit his military post of general over the past few days but so far retaining his government post as prime minister using his civilian name with the party formation application.
The Thein-Sein-led USDP is transformed from the government- supported biggest social organization, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), previously led by its Secretary- General U Htay Oo, who is also Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.
U Htay Oo has also resigned from his military post as major- general, while so far retaining the government post as the minister.
The previous USDA was established in 1993 with some government leaders being members of the central panel of patrons, led by Senior-General Than Shwe, Chairman of the ruling State Peace and Development Council.
The USDA claimed to have developed to a membership of 24.6 million.
Without formal announcement, several other government ministers and some deputy ministers as well as some high-ranking military officials have already followed suit to resign from their respective military posts.
Some other ministers are also expected to quit their ministerial posts for going to polls.
The move is apparently seen as transforming the current military officials into the civilians' to contest in the parliamentary election.
According to the prescription of political parties registration law enacted by the ruling State Peace and Development Council ( SPDC) for the planned election, party members shall not be members of religious orders, government employees, persons serving prison terms having been convicted by the court, members of anti- government armed groups or outlawed organizations or terrorists or their associates deemed by the government.
The law denies continued existence of those political parties infringing one of the above stipulations and failing to expel or harbor members for above infringement as well as failing to produce parliamentary representative candidates to compete in at least three constituencies.
Meanwhile, of the 10 old political parties in existence since the previous 1990 general election, five have applied for continued existence and for election, of which three have been granted to date.
The three include the National Unity Party (NUP), which is reorganized from the Ne-Win-led Burma Socialist Program Party dissolved in the height of a nationwide political crisis in 1988 before the take-over of power by then State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in September 1988. The SLORC was renamed as State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in November 1997.
However, the commission set May 6 as ultimatum for the remaining old parties to apply for re-registration, warning that those failing to do so after the expired date will be automatically revoked, citing the party registration law.
Blaming some tough restrictions for being "unjust" imposed by the law, the National League for Democracy (NLD), one of the 10 old political parties, has adopted a decision against re- registration to take part in the election and at the same time it faces dissolution after the ultimatum expires.
The coming general election is another one introduced in two decades by the government after ignoring and voiding the result of the 1990 general election held under its then election law, in which the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the majority of the parliamentary seats.
The new election law declared replacement of the old election law, saying that the result of the 1990 general election is "no longer in conformity with the new state constitution".
For the holding of the 2010 general election in accordance with its fifth step of its seven-step roadmap announced in 2003, the government enacted on March 8 a set of five electoral laws, namely Union Election Commission Law, Political Parties Registration Law, Parliamentary House of Representatives Election Law, Parliamentary House of Nationalities Election Law and Region or State Parliamentary Election Law.
As a follow-up, a 17-member Union Election Commission, led by U Thein Soe, was formed.
Meanwhile, three former ethnic peace groups, namely New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) in Kachin State Special Region-1, Kayinni Nationalities People's Liberation Front (KNPLF) in Kayah State Special Region-2 and Kokang Army in Shan State (North) Special Region-1 in the northeast, have so far been transformed by the government into border guard forces under its control in late last year in consonance with the holding of the election.
Transformation of more such groups are being sought by the government ahead of the polls and hard negotiations are underway according to informed sources.
The government claimed that since 1988, 17 main anti-government ethic armed groups have returned to the legal fold under respective ceasefire agreements with their arms retained and settled in some special regions.
Source :http://english.cri.cn/6966/2010/05/01/168s566947.htm
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