The Irrawaddy Burma Election 2010

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NLD Youths Reject Party Registration

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National League for Democracy youth leaders decide to reject party registration for this year's planned election at a meeting at the party's headquarters in Rangoon.

National League for Democracy (NLD) youth leaders decided today to reject party registration for this year's planned election, according to members of the NLD's youth wing who attended a meeting at the party's headquarters in Rangoon on Friday.

9-26-3-10“Today we all decided not to register to contest the election. This was the main topic of discussion at our meeting, and we came to a unanimous decision,” said Nay Myo Kyaw, an NLD youth leader from Magway Division.

He said that all 51 NLD youth leaders who attended the meeting agreed to continue their peaceful struggle for democracy together with the public.

“Even if the party decides to contest the election, we have already decided against it,” said Myo Min Soe, a youth leader from Rangoon Division.

If the party is dissolved, the NLD youths will find another way to pursue their political goals, he said, without providing any further details.

The youth leaders also decided to uphold the NLD's Shwegondaing Declaration, which calls on the Burmese junta to review the 2008 Constitution, and expressed support for Aung San Suu Kyi, the party's detained leader.

They vowed to follow the decisions of Suu Kyi and other NLD executive members, and asked Tin Oo, the party's vice chairman, to lead the NLD youth until Suu Kyi's release.

They also called on the NLD Central Executive Committee to choose five NLD youth representatives to join the party's highest decision-making body.

In October 2008, more than 100 youth members of the NLD resigned from the party, complaining that they were not allowed to participate in decision-making. The mass resignation came soon after NLD Chairman Aung Shwe announced the appointment of six new youth advisers and a plan to assign ten others to lead youth activities.

The NLD Central Executive Committee and more than 100 party leaders from around the country will gather at the party's headquarters on March 29 to decide whether the party will register or not.

Suu Kyi, who has been legally banned from taking part in the election, recently spoke out against registration, but said she would leave it to the party to decide for itself what it wants to do.

 

Quotable

Nyan_win80"Once her [Aung San Suu Kyi's] sentence expires in November, and that notion is not disputed, it is our understanding that she will have served her sentence."
—Nyan Win, the foreign minister of Burma

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