(Reuters) – Myanmar’s ruling junta on Friday announced tough requirements for parties to contest an election this yr, including an enormous increase of their membership, a move that would sideline the military’s opponents and cement its grip on politics.
Myanmar’s top generals led a coup in February 2021 after five years of tense power-sharing under a quasi-civilian political system that was created by the military, which led to a decade of unprecedented reform.
The country has been in chaos for the reason that putsch, with a resistance movement fighting the military on multiple fronts after a bloody crackdown on opponents that saw Western sanctions re-imposed.
The military has pledged to carry an election in August this yr. An announcement in Friday’s state media said parties meaning to compete nationally should have no less than 100,000 members, up from 1,000 previously, and commit to running within the election in the subsequent 60 days or be de-registered as a celebration.
The foundations favour the Union Solidarity and Development Party, a military proxy stacked with former generals, which was trounced by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party in 2015 and 2020 elections.
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The NLD was decimated by the coup, with 1000’s of its members arrested or jailed, including Suu Kyi, and lots of more in hiding.
Richard Horsey, senior adviser to the International Crisis Group, who was based in Myanmar for 15 years, said the principles aimed to revive a political system the military can control.
“Parties are going to be either too scared, offended on the sham that the election is, or it would just be too expensive for them to mount a nationwide campaign in that type of environment. Who would fund a political party without delay?” he said.
“This whole exercise is something to perpetuate military rule. It’s a bit of theatre. It doesn’t need to work, because they’ve decided what the consequence shall be.”
The junta says it’s committed to democracy and seized power due to unaddressed violations in a 2020 election won in a landslide by the ruling NLD.
The NLD in November described the election as “phoney” and said it might not acknowledge it. The election has also been dismissed as a sham by Western governments.
(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Martin Petty and Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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