Technical regulations in Burma's forthcoming election have greatly increased the candidates' allowed campaign expenditure.

The Technical Regulations for Political Parties Registration, which will be announced tomorrow in State newspapers, includes party registration fees and the permitted expenditure of candidates, according to a copy of the regulation obtained by The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

Paragraph 7/b of article 2 of the technical regulation said: “From the day of gaining the approval of the Commission in accord with the Article 5/a of this law, a political party can register within 30 days together with the registration fee 300, 000 Kyat [US $300].”

Article 21 said: “A political party can use 10 million Kyat [$10,000] for campaign expenditure of each candidate who will run in any of the parliamentary elections, either from the party fund or the candidate's official earnings.”

This is very different to the no more than 70,000 kyat ($70 at current exchange rates; $1500 at exchange rates in 1990) allowed for campaign expenditure by candidates in the 1990 election regulation.

According to the recently announced election law, the National League for Democracy (NLD) has to register within 60 days as a political party or it will be dissolved.

On March 29, the NLD will decide if it will contest in the election or not, according to its central executive committee members.

The State-run television today announced “The Technical Regulations for Political Parties Registration” and it will announce detailed regulations in the State-run newspapers tomorrow.