Parties complain government not giving them time to prepare

Aug 27, 2010, 8:35 GMT

Yangon - Political parties in Myanmar have complained the government has not given them enough time to raise the money to register their candidates before an August 30 deadline.

The Election Commission said their offices will remain open over the weekend for candidates to register for the country's first elections in 20 years, but this may not be enough for many to raise the 500-dollar registration fee.

The polls are scheduled for November 7.

'Two more days is nothing for candidates who do not have fees' to register, said Daw Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, secretary general of the Democratic Party (Myanmar).

Some were considering selling their cars or something else of value so they could pay to register but have little time left to do so, she added.

U Soe Win, secretary of the National Democratic Force party, called the fee another disadvantage for the new and small pro-democracy parties.

Many have complained that the registration fee is prohibitively expensive in a country where the per capita income is less than 600 dollars a year.

About 40 parties have been allowed to contest the polls, which few expect to be free and fair.

The pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party is expected to field more than 1,100 candidates in the polls for lower, upper and regional houses, compared with a total of about 500 candidates from the pro-democracy parties.

Last week, Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi urged her supporters not to vote in the general elections.

Suu Kyi and her disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD) party are boycotting the general election to protest regulations passed by the junta that seemed designed to bar the Nobel laureate and her followers from the polls.

The regulations ban anyone currently serving prison terms from membership of political parties seeking to contest the polls.

Suu Kyi is serving an 18-month house detention term that is expected to expire November 13, after the election.

Myanmar last held a general election in 1990, which was won by the NLD. But the military have blocked the party and Suu Kyi from power for the past two decades.

Few observers expect November's election to bring about genuine democracy. The junta is not expected to invite independent observers to monitor the polls and Myanmar's press is uncritical of the regime.