ALD will not contest in next general election

Narinjara News, 2 January 2023

Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) will not contest in the next general elections to be conducted under the military regime, said a party official.

"This is the principle set up by our party. We have laid down the principle of not cooperating with any military dictator, so there is no reason to contest in any election conducted by the military personnel,” said ALD spokesperson U Myat Tun.

Myanmar military council has been planning to conduct the national election in August this year through the proportional representation system.

In Arakan, the government officials recently revealed that they would collect data related to the population census for the election procedures. Their activities are scheduled to start from 9 January.

When contacted, the party’s general secretary U Myo Kyaw stated that as the Union election commission is yet to disclose anything about the election, it would be too early to comment on their participation.

"The military council controlled election commission will hold the next election. Presently nothing has been revealed by them. So it may be too early to talk about the election. But our policy is not to cooperate with the military dictators. I think the party spokesperson
commented on the matter following the party’s principle stand,” he added.

The military council decided to hold the election following their adopted processes using the PR system.

All the major political parties of Rakhine State including Arakan National Party (ANP),  Rakhine People's Party (AFP) along with a number of small parties belonging to various Rakhine tribes have not made any announcement about their participation in the national polls.

In contrast, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in Rakhine State has been preparing for the election.

U Myat Tun asserted that there are no formal interactions among the ALD leaders and workers regarding the election. Moreover they have not discussed it with the election commission as well.

"Under the military regime, I can only say, we are not contesting in the polls,” he reiterated.

It may be mentioned that ALD was formed after the 1988 uprising and it contested in the 1990 national election. Their nominees even won 11 seats in Arakan State, gathering the third highest vote shares.

The party leaders did not participate in the 2010 elections, but they officially registered the party in 2012. After the ALD merged with the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) in 2013, it contested in the 2015 elections as the Rakhine National Party (ANP) and succeeded in
many constituencies.

In 2017, ANP split again and its leaders registered with the election commission for the third time as Arakan/Rakhine League for Democracy (ALD). In the last 2020 elections, 26 party candidates joined the races in Kyauktaw, Kyaukphyu,  Rambree, Ann , Taungup and Gwa townships, but none succeeded.