As the Arakan National Party (ANP) is yet to getregistered by the Union Election Commission (UEC) under the military council,it has suspended all kinds of party activities, said the party chairman U ThaTun Hla.

"The party registration has not been granted yetand hence the activities are currently being suspended. Even the activities within the party are alsostopped,” he added while talking to Narinjara News.

There is a possibility that if party activities arecarried out without the permission from the junta authorities it will takeactions.

The UEC granted party registration to five of sixpolitical parties from Rakhine State which applied for the registration.

Tha Tun Hla believes that the reason for delayingtheir registration was because any powerful ethnic political party is notallowed to register so easily. The authorities are taking time to scrutinizeall details carefully.

"Some ethnic parties are yet to be registered. So I believe it is taking more time for us too. Theymay be checking all details of influential ethnic more carefully beforeallowing them to register,” he stated.

The UEC released necessary guidelines for registrationof political parties on 26 January and asked the parties to apply forregistration under the new laws.

Besides the ANP, Rakhine/Arakan  Front Party(AFP) led by Dr Aye Maung, Mro People's Party(MNP), Mro  Ethnic Development Party (MNDP), Khami NationalDevelopment Party (KNDP) and Rakhine State National Unity Party (RSNUP) appliedfor registration.

Following which MNDP got its registration on 3 July,KNDP) on 5 May, MNP on 4 May, and both AFP and RSNUP received green signal fromthe UEC on 2 May.

U Aung Moe Myint, the in-charge of UEC for RakhineState discussed with the leaders of five local political parties on 11 July atthe State election commission office.

The leaders who attended the meeting revealed that theUEC instructed the parties not to be involved with any armed organization.

Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), which previouslyexisted as a political party in Rakhine State, Kaman NationalProgressive Party (KNPP) and Danet People's Progressive Party (DNDP) did notapply for their re-registration. So those parties have automatically dissolvedunder the military council electoral laws.

On 28 March, the UEC disclosed that more than 60political parties across Myanmar applied for registration. But 40 parties,including the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi, didnot apply within the specified time.