Myanmar military junta imposes strict electoral rules on political parties

Myanmar nationals and supporters hold the Myanmar flag and a large portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi during a rally outside the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, July 26, 2022. File photo via Diego Azubel/EPA-EFE

Junta tries to improve relations with outsiders after facing challenges sanctions from the post-coup US and EU, and declared General elections will be held by August.

However, the new law states that organizations “declared to be illegal associations or terrorist organizations” cannot stand for election, while also stating that people who are “associated with or directly or indirectly supported by such organizations” cannot register for elections, Bloomberg reports.

The regulations also require political parties to have 100,000 members within 90 days of official registration and increase the amount of funds a party must have to $45,000.

The new rules pose a major threat to the prospects of jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which has become a target of the junta under the pretext of security.

leader of the national league for democracy Tell The move by the junta of the independent Myanmar Now news agency spells the death knell for their movement as it demands that no political party have members serving prison sentences.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent more than a decade under house arrest under the former military junta and was listed as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International in 1989 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.

In 2015, her NLD won a major victory in its first open election in 25 years and was re-elected by a landslide in 2020, but she was ousted in a coup after the military claimed election fraud.

Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and imprisoned again, along with the political leaders of the National League for Democracy.

During her tenure, Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation as a human rights icon was investigation It was concluded in 2017 that she had failed in her duty to prevent the genocide of the country’s Rohingya minority by the military, which is said to still be dominant. Still, she remains a hugely popular figure in Myanmar.

A sort of a report Since the junta ousted Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, nearly 3,000 people have died at the hands of the junta, while 1.2 million Burmese are internally displaced and more than 70,000 have fled the country, the statement released Friday said.