The Burmese junta officially annulled the results of the 1990 election in the Pyithu Hluttaw Electoral Law which was announced on Thursday in state newspapers, while authorizing some offices of the National League for Democracy (NLD) to reopen.
Article 91 of the law reads: “Pyithu Hluttaw Electoral Law 14/89 issued by State Law and Order Restoration Council [the former name of State Peace and Development Council] was repealed by this law. The result of the multi-party general election [in 1990] in accord with the repealed law is invalid because the result does not conform with the [2008] Constitution.”
Khin Maung Swe, the spokesperson for the NLD, which won 392 out of 485 seats in the 1990 election, said, “The result of the 1990 election is the desire of the people. Now the junta has repealed it by force without considering the will of the people.”
Moreover, in an unexpected move on Wednesday, the government authorized the reopening of long-closed NLD offices in Rangoon Division and Mandalay following the promulgation of the Political Parties Registration Law.
“At 5 p.m. yesterday, the authorities called me to a government office and told me that all the township offices of Rangoon Division could be reopened,” said Dr. Than Nyein, the NLD vice-chairman of Rangoon Division.
“Almost at the same time, the authorities called and informed Thein Tan, NLD chairman of Mandalay Division, to reopen all party offices in Mandalay,” said Khin Maung Swe.
He said he believed that the authorities would allow all NLD offices across the country to reopen.
All NLD offices, except the party’s headquarters in Rangoon, were ordered closed after the 2003 Depayin massacre, an attack by junta-backed groups on a motorcade of party leader Aung San Suu Kyi in which scores of people were killed and injured.
Observers say that the election law has been crafted to ensure that political prisoners, especially NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are not allowed to contest the election.
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"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."
