AFP to attend UEC-led discussion about proportional representation electoral systems

By DMG 30 Oct 2021

DMG Newsroom
30 October 2021, Sittwe 

The Arakan State-based Arakan Front Party (AFP) will attend a meeting being organised by the junta-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) to discuss electoral system reform, including a potential switch to proportional representation (PR). 

Participating political parties will gather in Yangon in the first week of November to discuss electoral systems that should be changed, as the UEC tells it, in order to adapt to the country’s changing electoral situation. 

The meeting will be attended by the AFP, party chairman Dr. Aye Maung told DMG. 

“I and U Thein Tun will attend the meeting,” he said. “We have already registered to attend the meeting. We will listen if there is any discussion about the proportional representation system.” 

Each participating political party has been asked to send two representatives and the names, duties and telephone numbers of the individuals must be made known by November 1, according to the UEC. 

The Arakan National Party (ANP) has not yet decided whether to attend the meeting, said party chairman U Thar Tun Hla.  

“At the moment, the ANP is still in talks to attend the meeting,” he said. 

U Hla Myint, a spokesman for the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), said that so far no invitation had been received for the UEC-led talks. 

“We haven’t received the invitation letter yet. … If an invitation letter arrives, it will be up to the CEC [central executive committee] to decide whether to attend the meeting,” he said. 

Participation in the November meeting under the junta government and led by its hand-selected UEC will be one indicator of the extent to which invitees have accepted the military regime as a legitimate successor to the National League for Democracy (NLD) administration that the generals forcibly overthrew on February 1. 

The junta-appointed UEC announced on July 26 that the results of the 2020 general election were “annulled,” claiming the poll was marred by fraud and “was not in compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Union Election Commission Law and respective Hluttaw Election Law.” 

Several local and international election observers have disputed that there were any widespread election problems, however, concluding instead that the vote was largely free and fair. 

In contrast to a PR system, Myanmar used a first-past-the-post electoral framework for its general elections in 2010, 2015 and 2020.  

The military junta is pushing for the change to a PR system because it would help smaller and less popular parties, such as its proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, to secure a greater slice of parliamentary representation.