Myanmar junta election officials have barred an ethnic minority political party from running in the military regime's proposed 2025 elections under a law that excludes groups with suspected links to "terrorists", the Election Commission announced.
The Arakan National Party, which represents the interests of the ethnic Rakhine people in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, had its application to run as a party rejected, the Union Election Commission announced.
The election organizer said the rejection was based on a section of the political party law that excludes parties if they are declared or associated with terrorist organizations, use resources owned by the state or from foreign governments or misuse “religion for political purposes.”
Arakan National Party secretary general Khaing Pyi Soe told RFA that denying parties the chance to run in the election showed a lack of commitment to solving the country’s problems.
"Political parties are formed to solve political problems through political solutions. Now, the Union Election Commission has rejected the political party's official application,” he said. “So, I think that the regime and the commission itself have no intention to solve the current political problem through political means.”
Even though the party is not allowed to register it would continue to exist whether the junta recognized it or not, he added.
The Union Election Commission did not respond to RFA’s requests for comment.
Myanmar’s military overthrew a civilian government in a February 2021 coup on the pretext of fraud in a November 2020 general election swept by the National League for Democracy party, led by Nobel laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
The coup sparked a civil war as ordinary citizens took up arms to fight the junta, forming guerrilla bands of People’s Defense Forces, which have linked up with ethnic minority insurgent forces fighting for years for self-determination.
The junta has faced setbacks since late last year in several parts of the country. The Arakan Army insurgent group, which draws its support from the Rakhine population, has made significant gains in the western state, seizing more than half of its townships since a ceasefire with the junta ended in November.
The Arakan National Party initially sided with the military junta after the 2021 coup but it resigned from the military’s ruling council three months later.
Suspected links
A political analyst in Rakhine state said the junta may have rejected the party’s application because of links some of its old members had in administering areas occupied by the Arakan Army.
"Former politicians of the Arakan National Party are now working in the ULA,” said the analyst, who declined to be identified for security reasons, referring to a political organization the Arakan Army fights under.
The political party had withdrawn from the ULA, or the United League of Arakan, but it was not clear if the junta recognized that, the analyst said.
“I think they are unaware that they are no longer members of the party, so maybe that's why the junta canceled their application.”
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Democracy activists say the junta’s promised election will be a sham given that the country’s most popular political leader, Suu Kyi, has been jailed for 27 years on charges she denies, and the election commission has banned more than 80 parties.
The junta’s Union Solidarity and Development Party is one of 47 parties that have registered since March.
Junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said in March in an interview with the ITAR-TASS news agency, that the first elections since the military seized power would be held if peace and stability can be restored to the country. No date has been set for a vote.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.