Though the Mon Unity Party (MUP) applied for party registration with the junta’s Union Election Commission (UEC) over a year ago, it still has not been approved, according to party leaders.
MUP Party spokesperson, Naing Than Shwe, said that when he contacted the junta’s UEC by phone to ask why the party’s registration had not been approved the UEC said that the MUP’s registration was still under consideration and gave no reason for the delay in processing the registration.
He said: “It's been more than a year since we registered. It hasn't been approved yet. We don't know what the situation is. The commission has been investigating for a long time now. We don't know why. After three months of applying, we asked by telephone and they replied that they are still investigating. After that, we sent a letter and asked again. They also replied that they are still investigating. That is all we knew till then, now we don’t ask anymore. So we don't know what the situation is. Until now, the party’s registration has not yet been approved.”
On 31 January 2023 the UEC announced that all political parties would have to re-register themselves within 60 days.
Following the announcement many parties re-registered. The UEC re-registerd some of the parties that applied, but many powerful ethnic political parties, such as the Arakan National Party (ANP) and the Kachin National Kukrat Party (KNC) were denied registration by the UEC.
The UEC has been criticised for denying registration to ethnic parties. For instance, Colonel Khun Okka, a patron of the Pa’O National Liberation Organization (PNLO), claimed that the junta is being narrow-minded about the situation and pushing them to join the revolution.
He said: "According to the practice of democracy, elections and political parties should probably exist. However that group [the junta] has such a narrow perspective. I believe that all it considers is a party’s ethnicity and whether it [that ethnic group] has captured territory from them. Therefore Mon and Kachin ethnic parties have no chance [of getting registered]. If I am right [about this] I think it shows that the current leaders in Naypyidaw have a somewhat narrow mindset. They should be more broadminded and think that these groups might come over to their side [if they are registered], collaborate with them, join in with the elections and help re-establish democracy. If they thought this way, they could attract forces to their side. By pushing them [the political parties] away instead of pulling them in ethnic conflicts will persist… making it even more difficult to establish unity.”
Naing Than Shwe said that though the Mon Unity Party’s registration has not been approved, the party is still operating in the same way as it had before it applied for registration.
The MUP was formed by a merger between the All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMRDP) and the Mon National Party(MNP) in 2019. It is active in Mon and Kayin States and Tanintharyi Region.
The junta has said that a population census will be held in October 2024 and the general election will be held in 2025.
