Arakan National Party (ANP), a powerful political party in Rakhine State, has instructed the township and central level committees to respond to their opinions by February 28th on whether to re-register according to the new party re-registration guidelines issued by the Military Council.
U Pho San, ANP chairman of Kyaukphyu Township, told Narinjara that the party’s re- registration issue is being thoroughly discussed by the township committees, and some townships have already sent back their opinions.
On January 26th, the commission released the new law and regulations for the registration of political parties, and invited political parties to apply for party registration in accordance with the new law.
“When the meeting was held in Kyaukphyu and Ramree, the township committee members and executives agreed to re-register the party. If the party doesn’t exist, we won’t have the right to say anything. ANP is a party that is officially based in 8 townships. If the party is gone, the government will take back the party’s land and offices. That’s why we see that the party should re-register”, he said.
However, the re-registration of ANP has not yet been confirmed, and the matter will be decided after receiving feedback and opinion from the majority of the townships.
U Pho San added, “Once the Election Law Commission has been formed, we will know the laws and exact dates enacted by the commission. If we believe that the law that will emerge will be good for both the people and the party, we will decide to participate in the election. If we feel that the law will not benefit the people or the party, we will not participate.”
Thandwe, Gwa and Toungup townships have also sent letters to the ANP headquarters that they want to re-register the party, according to U Pho San.
When Narinjara contacted party chairman U Thar Tun Hla regarding the collection of opinions from township committee members, he replied that it was an internal party matter, hence he could not answer the media yet.
“ANP has not yet held a meeting on the issue of party re-registration. We are only at the stage of considering the issue. Nothing has been prepared about the election yet. We are still thinking about holding a meeting, to discuss whether or not to re- register the party”, he said.
According to the new law, there are two categories of party participation : one that will campaign at the national level, and those that will campaign by state (or) region. Parties that will compete in the national elections must be able to recruit 100, 000 party members within 90 days after the Election Commission recognized it as an official political party.
Parties competing regionally need to gather at least 1000 party members within 90 days. Parties that will be campaigning at the national level must also open an account at the Myanmar Commercial Bank with 1000-lakh kyats as party funds. And they need to be able to compete in at least 165 places, which is half of the total number of townships in the country.
In addition, the Military Council warned that existing parties that do not register with the Election Commission within 60 days from January 31 st , they will be automatically dissolved.
According to the new law, parties were given 2 months to register, but only 4 out of more than 90 parties were able to register. Rakhine parties have not been registered yet.
Among the three major political parties in Rakhine including the ANP, the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) has announced that it will not participate in the election aimed at prolonging the power of the Military Council, while the Arakan Front Party (AFP) has expressed its opinion that it will participate, because they believe the election is a way out for the political crisis.
