Recently Myanmar's current election commission dissolved 40 political parties including the winning party of last election, National League for Democracy (NLD). The military-controlled state media Myawaddy TV reported the news pointing the reason for dissolution to be the failure of these parties to register under the new Political Party Registration Law.
The law was introduced by the military junta in January including new rules for registration. Although the junta has been heavily criticized by the international community and the United Nations for the dissolution of the NLD, China, Russia, and the ASEAN bloc have maintained silence on the matter.
The announcement of an election in 2023 already brought a lot of criticism for the military junta, which is currently facing heavy resistance by the Myanmar people against the regime. Myanmar's military ousted the NLD from power two years ago, claiming “alleged” fraud in the 2020 election.
The NLD announced back in January that it wouldn't register under the new law, and nor would it participate in this farcical election. Considering the fact that the junta isn't even an elected representative of the people of Myanmar, the law is undoubtedly illegal, as is the election commission.
The law compels political parties to register within 60 days of its announcement. Along with that, after the registration, if the party wants to run for the whole union, it must recruit at least 100,000 party members in only 90 days. This is an exorbitant demand, as it's 100 times higher than the previous law.
Parties will also have to deposit 100 million Kyats in a state owned bank to complete registration. According to the Asian Network for Free Elections, the law misses the mark of international standard.
The law has also churned out an old provision that bars the involvement of any convict or “member of an individual or an organization designated by the State as committing terror acts” in the political parties. This is clearly a desperate attempt by the military to deter the participation of members of NLD currently in prison, including Aung San Su Kyi and the resistance members fighting against the military, which includes NLD's representative group, the National Unity Government, (NUG).
The junta is well aware that it cannot win any election with the NLD running for the seats, which was already proven twice in the 2015 and 2020 elections. Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst from Myanmar, opines: "[The] 2022 Political Party Law is the most restrictive and it's creating a distorted playing field. The law is made to decide who will be the winner and losers in the next elections, which will not be conducive to a liberal democracy."
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing obviously sings a different tune, stating this election is part of his efforts to restore democracy. But in reality, this election will bring out a quasi-democratic government where the junta is guaranteed 25% seats in the parliament and also gets to overpower any elected government due to the constitutional powers granted by the 2008 constitution.Even the 50 parties out of 92 from the last election that re-registered are somewhat linked to the military junta.
The only saving grace in this situation is that the military has extended the state of emergency for six more months, which has effectively postponed the election to the end of 2023. Military chief stated that half of the country isn't under military control, making it difficult to ensure safe elections. Ironically it's the military's brutal crackdown that has made the country unstable.
The NLD has stated that 1,235 of its party members have been arrested so far, and that 26 of them have died during interrogations since the 2021 coup. The death toll has also been increasing as well, reaching 3,229, of whom 382 were children. If the military manages to conduct the poll, it will become a target for resistance members, which will further increase civilian casualties. It might also tarnish the resistance forces' name among its international sympathizers. Assuming the same, Richard Horsey, a senior adviser on Myanmar for Crisis Group, urged “Western and regional actors to send a coordinated message to withhold electoral support.”
Although states like the US, UK, Germany, Japan have come forward in critique of the dissolution of NLD but it's clear that words aren't going to be effective on Myanmar's military that has constantly shown disregard for international criticism of its actions. The Junta has even walked all over ASEAN's 5-point consensus by dissolving NLD even though ASEAN members like Thailand and Cambodia are its regional allies. ASEAN and China's silence on this matter further stipulates that, to balance out their apparent shield to the junta, international actors must now step up.
Myanmar's crisis might seem to be an internal matter, but with people trying to flee the country to escape violence, in no time this will become a regional issue of refugee flows. To put an end to such possibilities, there is no better mechanism than different regional, international, and internal actors working together for a coordinated approach to bring back democracy in Myanmar.
Sadia Aktar Korobi is a freelance contributor.
