Myanmar's junta-stacked election commission on Tuesday announced that the National League for Democracy would be dissolved for failing to re-register under a military-drafted electoral law.
The move comes as the junta prepares to hold elections that opponents believe would only aim to cement the power of the military, which toppled Suu Kyi's elected government in February 2021.
"We strongly condemn the Burma military regime's decision to abolish 40 political parties, including the National League for Democracy," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said, using Myanmar's former name.
"Any election without the participation of all stakeholders in Burma would not be and cannot be considered free or fair and, given the widespread opposition to military rule, the regime's unilateral push towards elections likely will escalate instability," he said.
Suu Kyi cofounded the NLD in 1988, and won a landslide victory in 1990 elections that were subsequently annulled by the then-junta.
The United States has vowed to keep up pressure on Myanmar. In its latest move last week, the Treasury Department warned of the risk of US sanctions on anyone who provides jet fuel to the junta.
But the United States has stopped short of taking action against Myanmar's state-owned oil and gas company, with neighboring Thailand, a close US ally, worried about the move's impact.
Myanmar junta dissolves Suu Kyi's NLD party: state media
Yangon (AFP) March 28, 2023 - Myanmar's junta-stacked election commission announced Tuesday that Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party would be dissolved for failing to re-register under a tough new military-drafted electoral law, state media said.
The NLD, which Suu Kyi led to crushing victories over military-backed parties in elections in 2015 and 2020, will be "automatically cancelled as a political party" from Wednesday, according to the MRTV broadcaster.
The military justified its February 2021 power grab with unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in 2020 elections, ending a 10-year democratic experiment and plunging the country into turmoil.
In January, the junta gave political parties two months to re-register under a strict new electoral law written by the military ahead of fresh polls it has promised to hold.
Its opponents say the polls will be neither free nor fair.
Last month, the junta announced a six-month extension of a two-year state of emergency and postponed elections it had promised to hold by August because it did not control enough of the country for a vote to take place.
More than 3,100 people have been killed and over 20,000 arrested since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.
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