Burma's EC Rejects Democratic Party Campaign Ad

Print
Burma’s Election Commission (EC) last week rejected without official reason the script for a Democratic Party (Myanmar) campaign ad intended to be broadcast on state-run television and radio, said members of the party's central executive committee. 19538-Thu_WaiSpeaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Thant Zin Myint, a member of the Democratic Party central executive committee, said the party's campaign ad script was rejected by the EC last week and the chairman of the party, prominent politician Thu Wai, went to Naypyidaw on Thursday morning to submit another script.  

Each of the 37 political parties approved by the EC to contest the Nov. 7 election are allowed to campaign through state-run radio and television for 15 minutes each. However, each needs to submit the script for their campaign ad to the EC for approval seven days before it is broadcast.

Thant Zin Myint said the EC probably rejected the party campaign script, which was written by Thu Wai, because they believe some of the ideas in the script violate one of the nine rules released by the EC on Sept. 15 restricting party campaign speech. In particular, he said the EC may have determined that the script violated ruled (d), which says a party may not stimulate sedition or give any talks that can tarnish the image of the state.

The EC asked the Democratic Party to resubmit its campaign ad script within a week. If it is approved, the party’s chairman and secretary will be filmed and recorded for the ad, which will be broadcast for 15 minutes on state-run television and radio on Sept. 26. In order to run the ad on that date, the process of recording and filming needs to be finished by Sept 24.

Thus far, there is no report about which party will be the first to run their ad on state-run television and radio on Sept 26.

The nine rules that restrict political parties' campaign speech include: not to give any talks that can harm non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty; not to give any talks that can harm security, the rule of law and community peace; not to disobey the State Constitution of the Union of Myanmar and existing laws; not to give any talks that can lead to the collapse of the Tatmadaw (the military) or tarnish the image of the Tatmadaw.

The EC announced that if a political party breaches any of the prohibitions in the notification, or any of the principles or provisions enumerated in the permit, action will be taken against the party in accordance with the existing laws as well as the Political Parties Registration Law.