Pa-O National Organization, a political wing of Pa-O National Army (PNO/PNA), has re-registered as a political party with the junta-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC).
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On February 16, 2023, the military’s newspaper, The Mirror, reported that the PNO had re-registered with UEC in accordance with the Political Party Registration Law.
According to the announcement, PNO’s registration is to keep its political party status. The registration process was accepted and considered by the junta-appointed Union Election Commission.
Prior to the military coup, the PNO was a winning ethnic party during 2015–2020. It gained six members of the state parliament, three members of the House of Representatives (upper house), and one member of the House of Nationalities.
According to the Military Council’s new Political Parties Registration Law, the requirements are that political parties that will contest at the national level must register with a funding amount of 100,000,000 kyats.
The political parties which will contest in the state or regional level, the party must register with funding amount of 10,000,000 million kyats.
In addition, it requires the parties that will participate in the general election at the national level to recruit 100,000 party members within 90 days, while those at the state and regional level must have at least 1,000 party members.
Pa-O National Organization is the political wing of the Pa-O National Army, which is a close ally of the military regime. PNO is the first pollical party in Shan State re-registered with junta-appointed UEC and under newly Political Party Registration Law.
