The Union Election Commission officially declared Thein Nyunt an independent MP on June 6. In forming a new political party, he will be joined by Upper House MP Phone Myint Aung and legislators Kyi Myint, U Kyaw and San San Myint from the Rangoon Regional Assembly.

Thein Nyunt told Mizzima that party members would include his supporters in the Thingangyun constituency, in which he won the election as a NDF candidate. The NDF party central committee said it expelled Thein Nyunt for disclosing controversial financial matters to the media.

Then Nyunt said he will apply to the EC in July to form a new party and the name of the party, logo and seal will be announced at that time.

“Our policies will be national reconciliation, democracy and human rights’, he said. ‘Under these three goals, we will undertake two tactical lines, to resolve political issues by political means and resolve issues within the framework of the law’.

To finance the new party, lawmakers will contribute 10 per cent of their MP allowance and the party will accept donations from supporters, he said. He declined to say how many members the party had at the present time.

The party will contest only in the Dagon Seikkan Township constituency in the coming by-election, he said.

‘I ran in Thingangyun where my mass base was strong. We will contest only in the strong constituency because our candidates must contest in this by-election largely with their own money. We won’t accept any donations from businessmen’, Thein Nyunt said.

Thein Nyunt and Kyi Myint of the breakaway NDF faction were among nine MPs who have received permits to buy cars from the government at cheap prices. Thein Nyunt denied it played any role in his forming a new party. 'This is personal matter’, he said.

‘According to the office administrator concerned, the car permit was given to me because I had no private transport and was walking on the roads’.

Meanwhile, Kaung Myat Htut, who contested as independent candidate and lost in the South Okkalapa constituency in the 2010 general election, has applied to the EU to form a new party. He said he will call his party the ‘Myanmar National Congress’.

‘In the last election, our Myanmar Democracy Congress could not field the minimum requirement of three candidates due to financial constraints and our party was deregistered by the commission in accordance with the electoral laws’, Kaung Myat Htut told Mizzima. The Myanmar Democracy Congress was deregistered because it failed to  present a list of 1,000 party members as a minimum requirement.

To form a political party under section 4 of Political Parties Registration Law, a person must (a) be a citizen, guest citizen, naturalized citizen or holder of temporary ID card, (b) have attained the age of 25, (c) not be a member of any religious order, (d) not be a public servant, and (e) not be a convict. The electoral law also forbids those who are members of insurgent groups or groups which are declared as terrorist groups by the state, or members of associations which are declared as unlawful associations by any existing law, and those who contact and support unlawful associations directly or indirectly, from being members of legal political parties.