Political opposition restricted in Burma

BANGKOK — Burma’s military-controlled government has enacted a new law on registration of political parties that will make it difficult for opposition groups to mount a serious challenge to army-backed candidates in a general election set to take place later this year.

The new electoral law, published Friday in the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper, sets minimum funding and membership levels for parties participating in the polls. It also bans participation by parties or candidates deemed unlawful or linked to organizations declared by the military government to be terrorist groups.

The new law gives parties two months to re-register with the Union Election Commission and says those that do not will be “automatically invalidated” and considered dissolved.

Parties that compete nationwide will need to attain a membership of least 100,000 within three months after being registered. Parties also need to open offices in at least half of the country’s 330 townships within six months and must be able to contest in at least half of all constituencies, the law says.

Critics have already said the military-planned elections will be neither free nor fair because there is no free media and most of the leaders of the National League for Democracy party have been arrested.

The party rejected the new law in a message sent Friday to The Associated Press.

There are currently more than 90 political parties, but the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party appears to be the only one certain to be able to meet the new law’s requirements.