UDP chief withdraws from upcoming polls, quits party

Friday, 06 August 2010 11:37 Mizzima News

Rangoon (Mizzima) – Union Democratic Party chairman Phyo Min Thein has pulled out of the junta’s elections as he believes they will be neither free nor fair, he said in a statement yesterday, citing the behaviour of the junta’s electoral watchdog and the favouritism shown its party.

The decision he said was based on his dislike of the actions of the Union Election Commission (UEC) and the junta’s bias towards the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

He said he had lost faith that the junta would fulfil the criteria of a free and fair election, such as allowing all people to participate in politics; releasing all political prisoners to let them take part in the Burmese polls; letting all political parties conduct electoral campaigns freely, and permitting freedom of the press.

“On Tuesday, we conducted an internal meeting to decide whether we should contest in the forthcoming election … but we could not decide … which is why my statement is late”, Phyo Min Thein told Mizzima.

The commission granted the Union Democratic Party (UDP) permission to register as a political party on May 26, assigning it the registration number, 24.

Phyo Min Thein said he had once hoped this year’s elections would bring democracy to Burma, which had been his reason to found the party.

After the 1990 election, the junta failed to transfer power to the National League for Democracy (NLD), so some MPs-elect and politicians, Phyo Min Thein among them, planned to form a parallel government but their plan failed when the junta arrested them. Phyo Min Thein was sentenced to a long prison term for “high treason”.

The UEC on July 30 warned four leaders of the National Democratic Force (NDF) – the party that broke away from the NLD – that former political prisoners detained for “high treason” in the past needed to submit an appeal letter to the commission before standing in the forthcoming elections. The poll watchdog said it would review the appeal and pass it to a superior authority.

“I had the same case. I was sentenced … for high treason. The electoral commission said to submit an appeal letter, but they don’t have the power to make such decisions, so I have a question: ‘Who is the superior authority? Who is above the electoral commission’,” he said.

“Moreover, because of the commission’s directive number 2/2010, new parties have encountered difficulties in conducting electoral campaigns and collecting funds as regulations have seriously limited the rights of those parties”, he added.

He said his decisions to pull out of the elections resign from the party were his own and that the party and members would remain, adding that the position of chairman would be transferred to another member.

Additional reporting by Khaing Suu