- Web Master
- March 25, 2023
Narinjara News, 10 March 2023
Two minority political parties from Rakhine State namely Mro Ethnic Party and
Khami National Development Party, have decided to register with the junta controlled UEC for
participating in the elections.
Mro Ethnic Party secretary U Min Aung revealed that the reason behind registering as an ethnic political
party is to get the right to speak out
on national level about them.
"Being a minority group, we have little space to speak about our people. So we need a legal political
party to highlight out our rights and
challenges at the State level. Hence we have decided to register our party with the election
commission," he added.
His party plans to register 24 members at the initial stage.
Currently, a few ethnic problems exist between Mro and Khmi minority group. The party was registered in
order to prevent any major problems in
the days to come.
With the fear of deregistration by the military council, Khami National Development Party may also
proceed to do so.
Any party, which does not register itself with the election commission, would be dissolved under
the new law enacted by the military
council, informed MEP chairman U Sein Hla Kyaw.
"We do not want our party to be disbanded. After all, we need a valid political party to carry out our
activities legally," he added.
Another minority Party, Kaman National Development Party (KNDP), spokesperson U Kyaw Nyein stated that they are
observing public opinions over the
matter before taking the final decision.
“A decision concerned will be taken after some days. Now we are listening to the public voice,” he
added.
Rakhine State’s powerful political entity, Arakan National Party (ANP) is also discussing about the
registration. On the other hand, Dr Aye Maung
led Aarakan Front Party (AFP) has already registered with the commission.
However, Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), which had won 11 seats in the 1990 elections from Rakhine State,
has decided not to contest in the
military controlled polls.
As of 8 March, 17 political parties have registered with the commission. Among them, 5 political
parties plan to do activities nationwide,
where 12 parties will organize programs regionally.
The new law says that if a political party does not proceed with the election commission by 60 days from 1
February, their registration will
be automatically cancelled.