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| Burma opens political party registration |
| 20-MAR-2010 Intellasia | AP |
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| 20 Mar, 2010 - 7:08:00 AM |
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Myanmar opened the registration period Thursday for political parties ahead of elections this year, in what the government bills as a key step toward democracy but which critics suspect will entrench the country's military rulers.
State radio and television announced that new and existing parties could register at the Election Commission office in the administrative capital of Naypyitaw. The government also published texts of new bylaws for party registration and polling.
This year's planned elections are part of the junta's "roadmap to democracy," but critics say the military shows little sign of relinquishing control and note that the government has made every effort to prevent opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in the polls.
Suu Kyi's party has said it will decide by the end of this month whether to take part in the elections _ the first since 1990, when the party won overwhelmingly, but the government refused to recognise the results.
The government has not yet set an exact date for the polls. The newly released laws set deadlines for legal actions by parties that seem to imply the polls will be held no earlier than November.
One recently enacted electoral laws prevents Suu Kyi from running in the elections and forces the Nobel peace laureate out of the party she helped found because of her conviction on charges of violating her house arrest when an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside property.
Suu Kyi is currently serving an 18-month term of house arrest and many top members of her parties and ethnic-based parties are serving prison sentences. She has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.
The new bylaws tighten electoral registration rules, with a new 1,000-person minimum for parties and higher fees for parties and candidates.
Parties now must pay a registration fee 300,000 kyats (about $300) compared to the 500 kyats (about $6) fee required for the most recent previous election in 1990. Candidates must deposit 500,000 kyats ($500), compared to 10,000 kyats ($10) before.
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20100318/tap-as-myanmar-election-d3b07b8.html
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