On July 28, Myanmar’s military-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) announced a second amendment to the Political Parties Registration Law.
The change adds a new rule—Section 12(a)(11)—which says that a political party can lose its registration if the UEC decides the party cheated or did something illegal during the election.
Section 12(a) already allows the UEC to cancel registration if a party breaks certain rules. Before, it had 10 parts. Now, the military junta has added one more part as number (11).
Nai Than Shwe, spokesperson for the Mon Unity Party (MUP), said this change may help reduce voter fraud, but canceling a whole party because of one problem is too extreme.
“It’s good if they want to stop cheating,” he said. “But shutting down a whole party for one case of cheating is too much. The law should punish the person who cheated, not destroy the whole party.”
The law change is not very clear. Nai Than Shwe also asked whether this is meant to stop problems like people voting twice or voting without proper papers, which happened before.
The military junta first changed the Political Parties Registration Law on January 30, 2024, using Article 419 of the 2008 Constitution.
The military junta took control of the country in February 2021. They said the 2020 election was unfair and claimed the National League for Democracy (NLD) tried to form a government without fixing problems in the voter list.
