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Junta’s election commission claims there is ‘no plan’ to audit NLD yet

A member of the Union Election Commission (UEC) established by the junta has said that the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) is not among the parties being subjected to a financial audit by the coup regime. 

“There is currently no plan to do that,” UEC member Khin Maung Oo told Myanmar Now. 

He refused to specify which parties would be audited and when, as well as how they were selected. 

A lawyer for detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi—who is facing 11 charges—confirmed before a closed court hearing in Napyitaw’s Zabuthiri Township on Tuesday that the UEC had sent two notification letters to the State Counsellor stating that an audit would be carried out on her party. 

“They weren’t addressed to her, so she said it had nothing to do with her,” Khin Maung Zaw, the head of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team, said. “It’s already included in the party rules and regulations that it’s a decision to be made by a meeting of the CEC [central executive committee]. Therefore, she didn’t accept the letters.”

A CEC member of the NLD who spoke to Myanmar Now on the condition of anonymity said they were not aware of a letter announcing an audit. They did not know if such a letter could have arrived at their party headquarters in Yangon’s Bahan Township, since the premises had been shut down and ransacked by the military council. 

“There’s nothing left to audit considering they’ve destroyed everything in our office, our documents and our lists,” they commented.

In July, the UEC officially annulled the results of the 2020 general election—which the NLD won—and in August ordered political parties to prepare their financial records for upcoming audits, a process which some suspect will be used as a pretext to disband them.

Thein Soe, who led the UEC during the rigged 2010 election that brought the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party to power, was re-appointed as chairperson of the UEC after the February 1 coup. 

In May he announced plans to dissolve the NLD, citing unfounded claims by the military that the party had won its landslide electoral victory last year through voter fraud.

Amid the junta’s efforts to crush the party, the Communist Party of China recognised and invited the NLD to attend an online regional meeting on September 9. 

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