Burma’s highest court has upheld the dissolution (opløsning) of the pro-democracy party (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The court ruled the party would remain an unlawful association because it refused to register for the recent election, BBC online reports Friday.
The court’s decision leaves Aung San Suu Kyi and her party outside formal politics in Burma. The NLD won a resounding victory in Burma’s last elections in 1990, but was kept from power by the military junta, which annulled the elections.
The party refused to re-register in order to take part in November’s election, complaining that the conditions set by the junta were unfair and undemocratic.
The ruling generals said the election marked a transition to democracy but opposition groups and Western nations have condemned the elections a sham (skinvalg/uden betydning).
The new parlia-ment opens in the capital Naypyidaw on Monday 31 January.
It will mark the implementation of the new constitu-tion and see the transfer of power from the military government to a parliament and president.
Under the junta-drafted constitution, the military is allocated 25 per cent of seats in both houses of parliament and the state assemblies.
Representatives of military-linked parties – many of them former officers who stood down to stand in the polls – are expected the dominate the chambers.
But there will also be a small number of lawmakers representing Burma’s ethnic parties and its pro-democracy opposition, BBC notes.
