ANP addresses terms of party fealty, and lack thereof, at latest meeting

By DMG 09 Mar 2022

DMG Newsroom
9 March 2022, Sittwe 

Members of the Arakan National Party (ANP) are able to resign from the party voluntarily, according to party decisions made at a meeting this week. 

U Thar Tun Hla, chairman of the ANP, said party members were told this at the party meeting on March 8. 

“Three decisions were made at the party’s meeting. At present, members of the Arakan National Party have the right to resign voluntarily, and to join any party of their own choice at any time,” he told DMG. 

U Thar Tun Hla added: “It has been decided that those who have resigned from the party and the party members who are no longer serving in the party and are serving in other organisations will have nothing to do with the Arakan National Party.” 

In addition, meeting participants discussed whether members of the ANP’s policy steering and executive committees who were elected since 2019 are willing to continue serving in the party. 

The ANP has announced that it will declare its party leaders’ willingness to continue their party duties no later than March 15. 

The ANP is one of the most powerful political parties in Arakan State, but has struggled to navigate the political terrain of post-coup Myanmar.  

In the weeks following the February 1, 2021, military coup, the ANP was criticised over its decision to work with the junta, with one of the party’s senior members taking a seat on the junta’s State Administration Council (SAC). Multiple party members tendered their resignations in protest of its cooperation with the military government, which the party eventually walked back.