The Ethnic Alliance Political Parties' (EAPP) top leaders decided not to extend membership to political parties that are already members of other political alliances they announced at the coalition's meeting held on 1st November at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters.
U Kyi Toe, of the NLD said: “There are still a lot of alliance groups; and some parties are exclusively members of one alliance. For example, member parties of the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) usually do not join as member parties of other alliance groups. But, some groups accept all [political parties].”
Although the EAPP will not accept individual parties who hold membership with other alliances, the group has announced that it will, however, accept whole alliances as a member groups.
The EAPP is led by the NLD and was founded in October 2014. It has 22 member parties, which are made up from the 12 parties in UNA and the 10 parties in the Committee Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP), which was founded in 1993.
The EAPP was founded with the guiding aim of achieving a federal union during the country’s current democratic transition and fostering understanding between political parties. It also pledges to collaborate with other ethnic parties according to U Nyang Sark, Chairman of the Chin Democracy Front.
He said: "All [political] parties in Burma should cooperate and EAPP will continue to cooperate with other alliances and if any other alliance wants to join us it would be possible to accept them."
EAPP committee members will be selected this week, and will be chosen from the alliances’ member parties, which include the Shan State Kokang Democratic Party, the Wa National Unity Party, the Chin Democracy Front, the Kayah National Democracy Front, the Ta’ang National Party, the Karenni National Progressive Party, the Democracy and Human Rights Party, the Mon Democracy Party, the Chin Progressive Party, the Shan National Democracy Front, and the National League for Democracy.
