Burma’s premier registers party to contest upcoming polls

Originally appeared in Deutsche Presse Agentur

April 30, 2010

Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein on Thursday registered a new political party to contest a general election scheduled at an unspecified date this year, state media reports said.

Thein Sein and 27 other ministers and deputy ministers have joined the Union Solidarity and Development Party to contest the polls, Myanmar TV announced.

The announcement followed a mass resignation of former general Thein Sein and more than 22 other government ministers from their army posts on Monday, providing them with the civilian status needed to contest a general election.

Their party is believed to be a new form of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a pro-military mass organization that claims more than 20 million members in Myanmar, where the total population is close to 56 million.

Myanmar’s ruling junta has promised an election this year as part of the regime’s “seven-step road map to democracy” but the date has not yet been set.

Candidates are not allowed to hold a military rank.

Among those who resigned were Major General Nyan Win, minister of foreign affairs, Colonel Zaw Min, minister for electrical power, former Major General Khin Mg Myint, Major General Hla Tun, minister for finance and revenue, Brigadier General Thein Zaw, minister of communication and Brigadier General Tin Naing Thein, minister of commerce, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

Also on the list were the ministers of interior, social welfare and tourism, four deputy ministers, four members of the public service selection board and two director generals.

In March, the junta passed legislation on the registration of political parties that essentially forced the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party to choose between dumping their leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, or not contesting the polls.

Under the registration rules, people currently serving prison terms are not permitted to be members of political parties contesting the election. Suu Kyi is currently serving an 18-month house detention term.

The NLD, which won Myanmar’s last polls in 1990 by a landslide, has opted not to contest this year’s election.

Observers believe that without the NLD and Suu Kyi in the contest, the polls are likely to be neither free nor fair nor anything more than a sham exercise in democracy to cement the military’s control over the country’s political future.

Myanmar has been ruled by military dictatorships since 1962.