Parties prepare for Aug 30 deadline
PARTIES were last week scrambling to organise candidates and registration fees ahead of the August 30 deadline.
Most political leaders said the limited timeframe – the deadline was announced on August 13, along with the election date – had affected the number of candidates they would register.
Many parties were only able to register candidates capable of paying the K500,000 registration fee themselves.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party and National Unity Party (NUP) are expected to field the largest number of candidates. The USDP is expected to contest every single seat in the country, more than 1150 in total, while the NUP will register between 700 and 1000 candidates, said U Thein Htun, the secretary of the party’s political committee.
“We will contest all three hluttaws but will avoid fielding candidates in special administrative regions,” he said. “We expect to finish the registration process on August 27, three days ahead of the deadline. I will contest a seat in Yangon Division.
Some of the candidates can finance the registration fee themselves, some need some support and some of the candidates cannot pay any of the registration fee.”
Senior National Democratic Force officials last week toured central Myanmar in an attempt to drum up candidates.
NDF chairman Dr Than Nyein said the party expected to be strongest in Yangon, Mandalay, Magway, Ayeyarwady and Sagaing divisions.
“We will field more than 100 candidates in the election. [Most are in towns and cities but] there are also some candidates in rural areas who are registering as NDF candidates. We can’t say exactly how many candidates we will have,” Dr Than Nyein said.
U Thu Wai, chairman of the Democratic Party (Myanmar), told The Myanmar Times the party expected to field a similar number of candidates.
– Diplomatic Affairs Desk
