Since 16 May, representatives from political parties and armed movements have been holding brainstorming sessions to combine their drafts of framework for political dialogue (FPD).

They include those from the National League for Democracy (NLD), United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), “56 parties”, the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT), Karen National Union (KNU) and the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS).

All have agreed that waiting for the signing of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), that was agreed on the March by the drafters from both the government and the ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), would consume a lot of time that they can ill afford.

According to the draft NCA, the Framework for Political Dialogue (FPD) would be negotiated and agreed upon within 60 days after the signing of the NCA, followed by the launching of the Political Dialogue (PD) within the next 30 days.

“We now have only 3 months remain before the election campaigns begin in September,” a participant of the informal brainstorming sessions said. “So if we are going to wait until the NCA is signed to begin the FPD process, it is more than likely we may not be able to finish in 2 months time. What we are trying to do is to combine all the FPD drafts available in order to present them in a single text to the NCA signatories.”

So far there are 4 known FPD drafts prepared by the NLD, UNA, “56” parties and the NCCT.

The ongoing FPD sessions are the result of the Peace and National Reconciliation Forum held at Inya Lake Hotel on 9 May, and participated by 152 representatives from the government, 7 EAOs, 64 political parties and civil society organizations. The co-hosts of the forum were the 4 EAOs and 55 political parties that had signed the Deed of Commitment (DoC) with the President, Union Parliament Speaker and 3 top military officers on the Union Day, 12 February.

“The DoC does not seek either overshadowing or annulment of the NCA,” the forum had declared “On the contrary, it is to strengthen and complement it.”

The DoC has promised to launch the political dialogue before the elections.

“From September to March 2016, after the new government is installed,” said a participant at the forum, “the peace process machine can be kept warmed up by the launch of the political dialogue. Then we won’t have to start it from scratch.”

Concern was expressed during the 15 May Economist Myanmar Summit that if the NCA was not signed before the elections, there would be no military code of conduct (CoC) for both belligerents to observe and no Joint Monitoring Committees (JMCs) to curb the ever-present danger of ceasefire violations by either side.