Political Party and Candidate Registration Political Parties A total of 91 political parties contested in the 2020 Myanmar general elections. 49 of these are ethnicbased, and 18 political parties are only active in one state or region, while the other 73 operate at the national level. Political parties needed to register by 30 December 2019 in order to be able to compete. Five additional political parties were either dissolved or suspended by the UEC on procedural grounds, and therefore unable to field candidates 65. However, the highest-profile dissolution is that of the United Democratic Party (UDP), also known as the “Rose Party”, disbanded on 17 October 2020 for allegedly receiving foreign funding 66. Suspicions arose when the UDP fielded 1,131 candidates across the country in the 2020 general elections, up from 80 in 2010 and over 40 in 2015, which made the party the second-largest by number of candidates 67. Media reports revealed that UDP chair U Kyaw Myint was convicted of money laundering in 1998 and escaped from prison in Mandalay the following year, prompting authorities to probe his past and finances. Kyaw Myint was arrested on 29 September 2020 and, on 15 October, the President’s Office announced that Kyaw Myint had received 16 billion kyat (US$12.4 million) from China in 2015, and used 1.4 billion kyat (US$1.1 million) to finance his party’s activities. While the allegations against the UDP are serious and warrant the dissolution of the party under Myanmar’s election laws if true, the actions of the UEC raise several questions. First, no evidence was provided to support the claim that the party was funded by foreign sources, and the dissolution occurred before the UEC had conducted an audit 68 or a court had ruled on the matter, which goes against the principle of presumption of innocence. Although ANFREL understands the intent was to prevent a potentially fraudulent organization to tip the playing field in its favour, international standards dictate that a political party’s termination should be grounded in the due process of the law. Another concern is the timing of the announcement, only 3 weeks before Election Day. The matter should ideally have been addressed prior to the start of the campaign through timely scrutiny by the UEC and other relevant government agencies. While it is true that some information only recently came to light, concerns about Kyaw Myint’s fugitive status and the origin of his fortune were raised as early as 2009 69, which should have prompted authorities to exercise diligence earlier. The direct consequence of the dissolution of the UDP is that the 1,131 candidates it had nominated were disqualified and unable to contest the elections. However, their names still appeared on the ballot papers as they had already been printed. Although the UEC posted an announcement in every polling station, this may still have resulted in some voters casting invalid ballots on Election Day. 65 They are the 88 Generation Student Youth (Union of Myanmar) Party, the Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics, the 88 Generation Brotherhood Party, the People Democracy Party, and the Union Democratic Party. 66 https://uec.gov.mm/news_preview_detail.php?action=news_detail1&news_id=TcBk7RvUKUlwmYfb0Tf0mBG OKlWsh1KRxESbOpsDUj0%3D 67 https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/a-lexus-3600-cognac-and-ex-military-men-shining-shoes-arrested-partyleaders-lavish-lifestyle 68 https://www.mmtimes.com/news/rose-party-respect-poll-disqualification.html 69 https://www2.irrawaddy.com/article.php?art_id=15174 29