Myanmar democracy activists allowed to form new party

အင်တာနက်ထဲ…ဒီသတင်းတွေ့လိုက်တာမို ့တင်လိုက်တာပါ။ အောက်မှာ မူရင်းသတင်းဖတ်နိုင်ပါတယ်။
ဒီသတင်း တခြားဘယ်မှာမှ မတွေ့သေးတာမို ့..လည်းဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

၁၉၉ဝ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲတုန်းကလည်း ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်က (အချိန်နီးလာမှ)ဆုံးဖြတ်ပြီး အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ ့ချုပ်အနေနဲ့ ရွေးကောက်ပွဲဝင်ပြိုင် အနိုင်ရခဲ့တာဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ NDF ကိုနိုင်ငံခြားအစိုးရများက အသိအမှတ်ပြု၊မပြုကတော့ စောင့်ကြည့်ရမယ်ဖြစ်ပါကြောင်း..။

(AFP) – 5 hours ago

YANGON — Former members of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s disbanded National League for Democracy received permission Friday to run in rare elections, amid signs of a rift within the opposition.

The activists have been granted permission to create a new party, the National Democratic Force (NDF), to stand in the military-ruled country’s first polls in two decades later this year, according to state TV and radio.

“It’s a victory for the people,” said Khin Maung Swe, one of the leaders of the new party.

“I’m glad for the people because we can officially strive for democracy,” he told AFP by telephone.

The NLD refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register — a move that would have forced it to expel Suu Kyi — and opted to boycott the vote, which critics say is a sham designed to legitimise the junta’s half-century grip on power.

There have been signs of friction between older hardline opposition figures and younger more moderate figures who opposed the boycott decision.

Long-time NLD spokesman Nyan Win, who is also Suu Kyi’s lawyer, said he had “nothing to say” about the NDF’s participation in the vote.

“It’s their own decision. We have to see what they will really do. The government also recently said it was working for democracy,” Nyan Win told AFP.

The NLD, which was founded in 1988 after a popular uprising against the junta that left thousands dead, won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the military rulers never allowed it to take office.

Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 20 years in jail or house arrest.

Under election legislation unveiled in March, anyone serving a prison term is banned from being a member of a political party and parties that fail to obey the rule will be abolished.

In a sign of growing discord within the opposition, former top NLD members have accused the NDF of copying their symbol of a bamboo hat and recently lodged a complaint with the election commission about its use of the image.

Khin Maung Swe said the NDF would not remove the hat from its official seal.

“Our symbol is a golden bamboo hat and two stars. As we were allowed to be a registered political party, we will officially form our central committee in the coming week,” he said.

So far 38 political parties out of 43 which applied to be recognised have been given permission to register ahead of the elections.

Suu Kyi had her incarceration lengthened by 18 months in August last year after being convicted over a bizarre incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home, and there are fears her detention may be extended again.

Her dedication to non-violence in pressing for change earned her a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and placed her — along with Nelson Mandela — among the world’s foremost voices against tyranny.

The woman known in Myanmar simply as “The Lady” remains the most powerful symbol of freedom in a country where the army rules with an iron fist.

Last month she marked her 65th birthday under house arrest at her lakeside mansion in Yangon, where she lives with two female assistants, cut off from the outside world without telephone or Internet access.

Foreign governments have urged the Myanmar military regime — which faces strict Western sanctions because of its human rights record — to take steps to ensure the vote is free, fair and credible.

In April Myanmar’s prime minister and some 22 other ministers retired from their military posts Monday, in a move seen as converting the leadership to civilian form ahead of elections due this year.

Myanmar’s leader is the head of the ruling junta, Senior General Than Shwe.

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