Narinjara News, February 24, 2023

Even thoughthe minority tribal parties in Rakhine State are willing to re-register toremain\ political parties, they face financial and other difficulties.

"Thereare many difficulties for small parties like us. In addition to paying 100-lakhkyats as a party insurance fee, we have to go to Naypyidaw two or three timesfor the procedures, so it may cost at least 130-lakh or140-lakh kyats”,chairman of the Mro National Party, U Aye Tun told Narinajra.

Minoritytribal parties face financial difficulties for registration due to therequirements of the new Political Parties Registration Law enacted by theMilitary Council.

On the otherhand, Mro National Party is trying to get registered because it believes thatit will be able to serve the interests of its own tribe only if it can stand asa political party, U Aye Tun added.

“The opinionof the party members in Ponnagyun, Kyautaw, Buthidaung and Maungdaw is stillbeing asked for the matter of re-registering the party. Whether or not theparty is registered will be confirmed on March 5th", he said.

U Kyaw Nyein,Secretary of Kaman National Progressive Party (KNPP) told Narinjara that due tothe requirements in the new Political Parties Registration Law, It has becomevery difficult for his party even if reducing the structure to stand asa state-level political party.

“In the past,our country was organized at the national level. But now, according to the newlaw, it is no longer possible to stand as a national level party. Even if thestructure is reduced to the state and region-based party level, the demand topay party insurance is still quite large. And there are variouschallenges in opening branches in 5 townships. Previously, branches were openedin Kyaukphyu, Sittwe, Ramree and Thandwe, but under the current situation, theremaining party strength can only be concentrated in Thandwe”, he explained.

Khami National DevelopmentParty is still debating whether to re-register as a political party and willmake a decision by the end of the month, said party chairman U Sein Hla Kyaw.

“So far, it isstill in the discussion stage and nothing concrete has been decided yet. Itwill be confirmed on the 28th of this month. More likely to register theparty”, he told Narinjara.

On January 26th, the Election Commission under theMilitary Council released the new law and regulations for the registration ofpolitical parties and invited political parties to apply for party registrationwithin 60 days in accordance with the new law.

According to the new law, there are two types of partiesthat will campaign at the national level and those that will campaign by state(or) region.

Parties that will be campaigning at the national levelmust open an account at the Myanmar Commercial Bank with 1000-lakh kyats asparty funds. And they need to be able to compete in at least 165 places, whichis half of the total number of townships in the country. And these partiesmust be able to recruit 100000 party members within 90 days after the ElectionCommission recognized them as official political parties.

The new lawalso stipulates that political parties that will organize only at state orregional level must open an account with 100-lakh kyats of party funds at anybranch of Myanmar commercial bank and need to gather at least 1000 partymembers within 90 days. The law alsostated that these parties must open branches in at least 5 townships.