New Karen Party Can’t Campaign Until it Receives Approval Of Its Registration

The Karen National Party (KNP), a newly formed Karen political party has yet to hear back from the Union Election Commission if its registration has been formally accepted.

The KNP said it is reluctant to carry out any of the party campaigns as it has not yet received response from the Union Election Commission – the KNP submitted its application to register their party on August 11, 2014.

Mahn Kyaw Nyein, the KNP leader, told Karen News that they had secured permission from the Union Election Commission (UEC) to form the party, but its registration is now delayed.

“We got permission to form our party by the Union Election Commission on July 16. After that, we elected two of our party leaders to apply for party registration according to the legal procedure of political party’s registration. However, we have been waiting for the result from the election commission. We cannot carry out the party campaigns. People are eager to cooperate with our party and we have daily communication with them, but we can’t start anything.”

U Hla Maung Cho, the deputy director of Burma Union Election Commission told Karen News that the UEC had already published a notice in newspapers on the KNP party’s name, flag, and logos that could be disapproved according to the political parties’ registration law.

The UEC deputy also said that the KNP registration is being checked by the relevant ministries to make sure it is inline with the main national causes such as Non-Disintegration of Union and Perpetuation of Sovereignty and that its logo or flag are not copies of other organizations.

U Hla Maung Cho spoke to Karen News.

“According to current situation, the Karen National Party is still under the vetting process. We will submit the complete results with acknowledgement when the process completed. What I am expecting is that it won’t take a long time. The party registration could be granted successfully.”

The KNP said it was formed with the aim for working for equality and self-determination for Karen people, to cooperate with other ethnic nationalities for a genuine democratic federal union, to protect the Karen people and to retain the rights, according to party cofounders.

At the beginning of this year, in order to form the KNP, party members organized public meetings in Yangon, Pantanaw, Kyaung Gone, Einme and Wakema townships and elected 15 leaders from the public meetings organized in Thay Taw village, Wakema township in Irrawaddy Division on April 27, 2014.

The KNP has applied for permission to the UEC on June 2 and the party forming permission was approved on July 16. Currently, the KNP party is waiting for the result of their party registration.