Democracy campaigners form new party in Myanmar

Democracy campaigners in Myanmar said on Friday that they would form a new political party after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party was abolished by the ruling junta ahead of elections. Senior figures in Suu Kyi’s NLD party have already signed up to the new party which will continue with the struggle against military rule.

Photo: Reuters

“It breaks my heart. We are sorry it has come to this – the dissolution of our party. I didn’t want to see this, I was one of the original founders of the party on 27 September 1988,” Win Tin, the author of The Life of a Dissendent, told RFI.

The NLD had ignored a deadline to re-register. A move that would have meant Suu Kyi would have been expelled as leader.

“The NLD is finished but we will continue the NLD’s unfinished political duty by keeping our faith with the NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” Khin Maung Swe, a former NLD committee member, told the AFP news agency.

Khin Maung Swe said they intend to register the new party this month but was not sure whether they would participate in polls. While Nyan Win, a longtime spokesperson for the NLD, said the new democratic movement should boycott the elections.

NLD’s headquarters in Yangon remained open on Friday despite the abolishment of the party at midnight on Thursday, and Nyan Win said former members would continue to operate out of the building.

Suu Kyi filed a lawsuit last week to overturn the new election laws, which also invalidate the landslide 1990 election victory. Her bid was turned down by the Supreme Court.