The Irrawaddy Burma Election 2010

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Parties Must Show Sufficient Numbers or Face Dissolution: EC

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Burma's Election Commission has warned registered political parties that they must submit lists showing they have the prescribed number of party members or face being abolished, state-run newspapers reported on Saturday.
Burma's Election Commission has warned registered political parties that they must submit lists showing they have the prescribed number of party members or face being abolished, state-run newspapers reported on Saturday.

Under the country's party registration law, parties planning to run nationwide must have at least 1,000 members, while those contesting the election in a single state or region need a minimum of 500 members. The parties are required to present their lists within 90 days of registration.

All political parties agreed to fulfill this requirement when they signed their registration applications and will face dissolution if they fail to prove they have sufficient membership, the commission's warning stated.

“I think the parties will manage to rally the required number of members. Otherwise, they would not have registered in the first place,” said Phyo Min Thein, the chairman of the Union Democratic Party, which has been approved by the commission as a political party seeking election nationwide.

To date, 42 parties have applied for registration, of which 24 have received official recognition. The remaining applicants are still “under scrutiny,” according to reports in the state-run media.

With the exception of the pro-regime National Unity Party, none of the major political parties that participated in the last election in 1990, including the National League for Democracy and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, have registered to run in this election.

So far, the Burmese regime has given no exact indication of when the election will be held.
 

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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