According to state television, the party of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi is among 40 political parties that were dissolved after failing to meet the deadline for registration.
Myanmar’s military-controlled election commission has announced that ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party will be dissolved for failing to re-register under a new electoral law, according to state television.
Miyawadi TV said in an evening bulletin on Tuesday that the National League for Democracy (NLD) was among the 40 political parties that did not abide by the ruling army’s registration deadline for the elections.
In January, the military gave political parties two months to re-register under a strict new electoral law ahead of new elections it promised would take place but which opponents say will be neither free nor fair.
The National League for Democracy said it would not object to what it calls illegal elections.
“We absolutely do not accept elections being held at a time when many political leaders and activists are being arrested and people are being tortured by the military,” said Bo Bo O, an elected lawmaker from Suu Kyi’s party. He said on Tuesday.
In November 2020, the National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the country’s parliamentary elections. But less than three months later, the military staged a coup and imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Nobel laureate, 77, is serving prison terms of up to 33 years after being convicted in a series of politically tainted trials that were thrown out by the military. Her supporters say the charges were designed to prevent her from participating actively in politics.
The army justifies the coup
The military justified the coup by saying there had been significant voter fraud, although independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.
Some critics of General Min Aung Hlaing, who led the takeover and is now Myanmar’s most senior leader, believe he acted because the vote thwarted his political ambitions.
No date has been set for the new polls. It was expected by the end of July, according to the plans of the army itself.
But in February, the military announced an unexpected six-month extension of the state of emergency, delaying the possible legal date for elections.
She said that security could not be guaranteed. The military does not control large parts of the country, as it faces widespread armed resistance to its rule.
More than 3,100 people have been killed and more than 20,000 arrested since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
The Myanmar military has been accused of indiscriminate killings of civilians as it engages in major offensives to quell armed resistance that opposed its takeover of the government two years ago.
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