The Junta has amended Law No. 15/2024 to ease regulations for registration of political parties for a renewed attempt by the coup regime to to stage an election sometime this year.
As per the initial criteria established in 2023 by the Junta-controlled Union Election Commission (UEC), political parties aiming for nationwide campaigns are required to accumulate a minimum of 100,000 members within a 90-day period following the granting of registration rights The coup regime had promised to run the election in 2023, however a high-ranking meeting of senior generals and police chiefs concluded that the regime’s loss of control of many rural areas, and increasing conflict with the resistances forces led to the postponement of their election plan.
Under the recently revised law, the stipulation 'within 90 days' has been modified to 'within 90 days before the commencement of the election,' and the threshold for the number of party members has been adjusted to 50,000 instead of 100,000.
As per the initial election law, political parties intending to campaign nationwide are required to establish offices in a minimum of half the total townships within the country within 180 days of registration. Additionally, parties vying in more localized elections, specifically at the state and regional levels, must establish party offices in at least 5 townships within the respective state or region.
Under the amended specification, the requirement "within 180 days" has been revised to "within 90 days before the day of the election," and the previous mandate of establishing offices in "a minimum of half the total townships" has been modified to necessitate offices in a "minimum of one-third the total townships" for political parties campaigning nationwide.
Prior to amending the law, during a meeting with political party leaders on November 23rd last year, the Junta’s UEC indicated that certain submissions for party registration failed to meet the prerequisites of the previous legislation.
In the meeting, certain party leaders requested UEC to alleviate the legal requirements for election registration, leading to subsequent amendments aimed at easing these regulations.
In Chin State, the newly formed entities, Khumi National Party (KNP) and Chin People Party (CPP), seeking party establishment, have been granted permission by UEC to formally establish their respective parties. Among the pre-existing parties, the Zomi Congress for Democracy (ZCD) is the sole party that has decided to register to participate in the upcoming elections organized by the Military Council.
However the security concerns that led to the cancellation of the election scheduled for 2023 have not gone. Since last year the coup regime areas of jurisdiction and capacity to safely administer an election has further contracted having lost many townships and military bases across at least 5 different regions.
The Military Council may be thinking that these election preparations will be useful to their strategy of trying to advance their legitimization agenda inside the Asean grouping of S east Asian nations.
