Myanmar’s military junta dissolves Aung San Suu Kyi’s party
Bangkok, Mar 29 (EFE).- Myanmar’s election commission, controlled by the military junta, dissolved on Wednesday the party led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was overthrown during a coup in 2021.
The National League for Democracy (NLD), which swept the 2015 and 2020 elections, is one of the 40 political groups dissolved for not registering with the commission for the elections that the military junta plans to hold on an unspecified date.
In January, the military junta published a new electoral law with strict requirements for parties to re-register within two months.
In a statement with a list of the 40 dissolved political parties published in the official newspaper, The Global New Light of Myanmar, on Wednesday the commission said that parties that the “did not apply within the specified period have been automatically canceled as political parties, and as of 29-3-2023, these parties have been canceled from being registered as political parties and the parties have been dissolved.”
The party led by Suu Kyi, who is serving a 33-year sentence for several charges leveled against her after the military seized power, had earlier declared its intention not to register with the electoral authorities to avoid legitimizing the military-orchestrated elections.
The United States and human rights organizations have also said that elections organized by the junta will not be free or fair.
“Outrageous & unacceptable that Myanmar military appointed ‘election commission’ orders the dissolution of Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party! Show the real intent of SAC (State Administration Council) junta’s so-called political party law,” Deputy Asia Director for Human Rights Watch, Phil Robertson, tweeted.
Among the parties eligible to contest the elections is the Union Solidarity and Development Party, linked to the military, and 62 others.
The coup on Feb. 1, 2021 plunged Myanmar into deep political, social and economic crises and has opened a spiral of violence with new militias that have exacerbated decades of guerrilla warfare in the country.
The Myanmar junta justified the coup, citing alleged electoral fraud in the now-annulled results of the 2020 elections.
However, international observers present during the elections had declared them to be free and fair, and since the coup, several governments and international organizations have condemned the widespread repression and violence unleashed by the military.
Since the coup, more than 3,000 civilians have been killed and 17,000 remain in political detention, according to figures from Myanmar NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. EFE
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