The two main parties have been given an extension of the deadline to submit audits to 9 March. If they fail legal action will be taken.
Monitoring Desk
Yangon
The Union Election Commission (UEC) under the control of the Military junta said that the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) political parties will be prosecuted and face dissolution for refusing to submit to their audit, in a press release on 23 February.
The Law states that political parties who refuse to submit themselves to an official UEC audit may be dissolved
The UEC has informed the parties that it would begin examining the lists of four parties, including the NLD, on 14 February.
However, the NLD and SNLD parties did not submit their lists to be audited on the due dates, according to the UEC.
The two parties have been given an extension of the deadline to submit audits to 9 March. If they fail legal action will be taken.
The SNLD confirmed that it had received the notification.
The UEC is insisting that the political parties report to its offices for the audit, whereas the parties argue that the normal procedure is for auditors to visit the premises of the organization being audited.
“Auditing is a process that must be carried out at the location of the business [being audited]. If we need to go somewhere [else] to be audited as they [the UEC] are asking there could be errors or things could go wrong,” said Sai Leik, a general secretary of the SNLD Central Executive Committee.
Because of this the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) has decided not submit to the subpoena for questioning, he explained.
According to the section 24 (c), (d) and (e), the registration of a political party can be suspended for up to three years and if the party fails to comply with the directive before the end of the suspension period the registration of the political party shall be revoked and the party shall be dissolved.
In addition, if the party registration under sub-section (c) is temporarily suspended, all other activities of the party except activities directed by the commission shall be suspended during that period.
Currently, the NLD party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi and other party members have been arrested and imprisoned by the military junta. They have also seized NLD assets.
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Courtesy: MIZZIMA
