Jury Chai – According to party leaders, the two domestic Mon political parties are currently attempting to unite and become one party.
“Mon parties were broken into two parties last year. Mon Demo [Mon National Democratic Front, or MNDF] did not accept or contest the 2010 general elections, so the All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMDP) was created. If MNDF decides to re-register as a political party, with compatible and mutual opinions, we can unite into only one party,” said Nai Ngwe Thein also known as Nai Janu Mon, chairman of AMDP.
In order to unite MNDF, which won several seats in the 1990 general elections, with AMRDP, which was reformed to contest the 2010 general election, the leaders of the two parties have been negotiating, continued Nai Ngwe Thein.
“In the third week of this coming December, the Central Executive Committee of our party will decide [whether to re-register the party or not]. If we decide to re-register the party, the union of the two parties is almost certain,” Nai Ngwe Thein, new chairman of MNDF, told the Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA) earlier today.
MNDF won five parliamentary seats in Burma’s 1990 general elections, but like Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), it decided to boycott the 2010 general elections.
However, on November 18, NLD announced its decision to re-register the party. Thereafter, the MNDF re-configured its central committee and asked its members to reassess the question of re-registering the party.
MNDF was originally formed on October 11, 1988, but the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) denied the legitimacy of the party on Mon State Day, March 19, 1992.
