A threat by Myanmar’s junta-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) to deregister two of the country’s largest political parties will only result in further opposition to the regime, according to the chair of one of the affected parties.
“If they want to pick a fight with organisations that are staying neutral, like us, then they will just be making new enemies,” said Sai Nyunt Lwin, the chair of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD).
He was responding to a warning issued by the UEC on Wednesday that the SNLD and the ousted ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), could both have their party registrations suspended for three years if they don’t comply with orders to submit to an audit of their finances.
Both parties declined last week to send representatives to the UEC’s office in Yangon as part of the audit process.
Citing sections 24c and d of the Political Parties Registration Law, the UEC said that the two parties could be forced to halt all activities for three years if they refuse to cooperate.
If they still haven’t submitted to the audit by the end of the suspension period, they will be disbanded under section 24c of the same law, the commission said in a statement.
According to Sai Nyunt Lwin, the UEC appears to be singling out the SNLD and the NLD for punishment.
“There are several other parties like us. I want to know why they are only focusing on us,” he said without naming which parties he was referring to.
Speaking to Myanmar Now on Wednesday, he claimed that his party declined to respond to the UEC summons for procedural reasons, and not because it was unwilling to be audited.
“It’s not true that we didn’t let them do the audit. We were waiting for them to come and they didn’t,” he said, noting that audits are normally conducted on the premises of the organisation being audited.
This is in contrast to the NLD’s stance, which is that the UEC does not have the authority to issue orders because it was not appointed by the country’s legitimate government.
Soon after last year’s coup, the military dissolved the UEC and appointed new members, including a new chair who previously occupied the position under Myanmar’s former ruling junta.
Thein Soe, a former general notorious for his handling of elections held under that regime, immediately set about overturning the results of the 2020 election, which the NLD won in a landlside.
Despite the regime’s claims of massive voter fraud in that election, the Thein Soe-led UEC revealed last month that it had only discovered evidence of just over 3,200 election offences.
Observers noted that this figure represents barely more than 0.01% of the 26m votes cast in the election, meaning that it would have had an insignificant impact on the outcome.
Meanwhile, the junta has vowed to take legal action against the more than 420 members of the previous UEC and nearly 2,500 local election officials for their role in alleged irregularities.
NLD leaders and party members are also facing prosecution on charges related to the election.
