Tuesday, 14 September 2010 19:58 Mizzima News
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The junta’s electoral watchdog declared the National League for Democracy dissolved today, according to a report on state-run television at 6 p.m.
“NLD and other five political parties were dissolved from today,” an NLD member told Mizzima via phone.
“It [the Union Election Commission, UEC] also announced that existing political parties could conduct electoral campaigns by using state-run radio, newspapers and the Myawaddy TV station. But there are many restrictions on how parties run such campaigns,” he added.
Some NLD leaders and members reached by Mizzima said they had expected such a move for a while because their party headed by detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi had decided against contesting in nationwide elections on November 7.
“I was not amazed. They have constantly tried to attack our party in the past so the news did not cause us great surprise,” NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo said. “Anyway, all of our party members remain united in carrying out our tasks.”
The party had cited its opposition to the unfairness of the 2008 constitution, the electoral laws governing the polls and the lack of inclusion of opposition groups and ethnic minorities.
Nyan Win, an NLD central executive committee member and one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, said: “That’s [the UEC’s announcement] not strange but it’s in accordance with the junta’s electoral laws.”
“We’d heard that the electoral commission announced the NLD’s dissolution but, as I understand it, the UEC has neither the right to take that decision nor make such an announcement. It only has the right to decide the fates of the parties that registered with it,” he said.
Details of the announcement are still being investigated.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
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