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Myanmar's USDP opens offices ahead of vote
AFP - Saturday, August 21
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Myanmar's USDP opens offices ahead of vote
MOEGOTE, Myanmar (AFP) - – The junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) opened offices across Myanmar Friday, setting its sights on winning the country's first elections in two decades.
About 300 members of the USDP, which is headed by Prime Minister Thein Sein, attended an inauguration ceremony at one of the offices in Moegote, a town in the central Mandalay division, cutting a ribbon and releasing balloons.
"We have to win the election," said a USDP official who did not want to be named, adding that the party had about 10,000 members in Moegote alone.
In April, Thein Sein and other ministers retired from their military posts to form the USDP, a move seen as converting the leadership to civilian form ahead of the election, now set for November 7.
The USDP received a major boost after the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) -- a powerful pro-junta organisation with deep pockets and up to 27 million members -- recently merged with it.
The Myanmar election has been widely condemned by activists and the West as a sham aimed at entrenching military rule.
Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent much of the past 20 years in detention and is seen as the biggest threat to the junta, is barred from standing in the polls because she is a serving prisoner.
Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide victory in 1990 but was never allowed to take office. It is boycotting the upcoming vote, saying the rules are unfair.
A group of former NLD members has formed a new party, the National Democratic Force (NDF), to stand in the election -- a move that has put it at odds with Suu Kyi, who was opposed to the NLD participating in the polls.
The NDF also opened a regional office in Moegote Friday with a small ceremony attended by about 50 people.
"As the NLD is not participating in the election, I thought it's better to go the NDF's way. However, I will support the NLD if they make any movement in the future," said former NLD member Soe Myint, 50.
So far 40 parties have been allowed to register for the polls, but they face serious hurdles.
Under strict rules, members of all parties are banned from marching, waving flags and chanting to garner support. They must apply one week in advance for permission to gather and deliver speeches outside their offices.
Parties must also register their election candidates by August 30, leaving them little time to prepare.
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