Myanmar’s military-controlled election commission has announced that the party of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi party will be dissolved for failing to re-register under a new electoral law, according to state television.

The National League for Democracy Party (NLD) was among 40 political parties that failed to meet the ruling military’s registration deadline for an election, Myawaddy TV said in an evening bulletin on Tuesday.

The NLD has said it would not contest what it calls an illegitimate election.

In November 2020, the NLD had won a landslide victory in the country’s parliamentary elections. But less than three months later, the army carried out a coup and jailed Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel laureate, 77, is serving prison sentences totaling 33 years after being convicted in a series of politically tainted prosecutions brought by the military. Her supporters say the charges were contrived to keep her from actively taking part in politics.

The army justified the coup saying there was a massive poll fraud, though independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.

Some critics of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who led the takeover and is now Myanmar’s top leader, believe he acted because the vote thwarted his own political ambitions.

No date has been set for the new polls. They had been expected by the end of July, according to the army’s own plans.

But in February, the military announced an unexpected six-month extension of its state of emergency, delaying the possible legal date for holding an election.

It said security could not be assured. The military does not control large swaths of the country, where it faces widespread armed resistance to its rule.

Source Al Jazeera

BDST: 2142 HRS, MAR 28, 2023
MSK