Friday, November 18, 2011

NLD central committee meeting starts

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Friday, 18 November 2011 12:06 Mizzima News


Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – National League for Democracy (NLD) central committee members from across Burma arrived at NLD headquarters in Rangoon on Friday morning to decide whether to re-register as a political party and contest in the coming by-elections.

NLD spokesman Ohn Kyaing said: “The headquarters is crowded with people. When the general secretary Aung San Suu Kyi arrives, the meeting will begin.”

NLD central executive committee (CEC) members from across the country will discuss the issue in keeping with the party’s philosophy of census building.


“Even CEC member Nyunt Wai, who has not been active for a a long time, will attend the meeting. Tun Tun Hein from Kyaukme in northern Shan State also arrived,” Ohn Kyaing said.

If the NLD registers as a political party, it is required to contest in at least three constituencies under the country’s electoral law. Ohn Kyaing said, “Their law is just their law. We have our own desires.”

He said the meeting might end around 2 p.m.

The newly formed government, which is dominated by former generals, amended key electoral laws last month designed to open up the political system. A key provision barring former prisoners from political party membership was removed, opening the way for many NLD members who are former political prisoners to take part in politics.

Top NLD officials says the country is changing rapidly, and many support its re-entry into the political process, now centered in the newly formed Parliament. In the by-election, 48 constituencies will be contested. The NLD won the majority of seats in the 1990 election, which was not honored by the then-ruling military regime.

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