Mon Democracy Party to open branch office in Rangoon

Friday, 14 September 2012 15:41 Theingi Tun and Min Min  

Rangoon (Mizzima) – The Mon Democracy Party (MDP), formerly known as the Mon National Democratic Front, will open a branch office in Rangoon in October in order to be closer to the international community and other political parties.

Nai Ngwe Thein and Nai Thet Lwin   Photo: Mizzima 

An additional benefit will be to attract new members, said officials. The party now has around 4,000 members.

MDP chairman Nai Ngwe Thein, vice chairman Nai Thet Lwin and others attended an organizing meeting on Wednesday in Pazundaung Township, Rangoon.

Presently, MDP headquarters is located in Moulmein (Mawlamyine), the capital of Mon State.

Nai Thet Lwin told Mizzima that the party’s policies are to safeguard human rights, to try to establish genuine democracy and to establish peace.

MDP contested in the 1990 general elections in the name of the Mon National Democratic Front and won five parliamentary seats. In 1991, a number of party leaders were arrested, and the former junta dissolved the party in 1992.

It did not re-register for the 2010 general elections. In November 2011, the political parties registration law was amended, and the party re-registered.

In 2010, another Mon party, the All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMRDP), registered as an official political party. This year, AMRDP and MDP signed an agreement in the presence of Buddhist monks and Mon citizens in Moulmein to merge into one Mon party before 2014.  But the merging process is still going on, said Thet Naing Lwin.

 “If [their party] can accept our policy, they can merge with our party,” he said.

Under the current government led by the President Thein Sein, Burma’s political parties registration law was amended. Parties that contested in the 1990 general elections including the Arakan League for Democracy and Shan National League for Democracy re-registered for the coming general elections to be held in 2015.

The oldest Karen political party, the Union Karen League, which was formed by an ex-President, Mann Win Maung, before Independence, is planning to reform after it was dissolved because it failed to contest in at least three constituencies in the 2010 general elections.