National Unity Party (Myanmar)

The National Unity Party (Burmese: တိုင်းရင်းသားစည်းလုံးညီညွတ်ရေးပါတီ Burmese pronunciation: [táɪɰ̃jɪ́ɰ̃ðá sílóʊɰ̃ ɲìɲʊʔ jé pàtì]) is a political party in Myanmar (Burma). It is the immediate successor of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), which ruled the country from 1962 to 1988. The party's headquarters are in Bahan Township, Yangon.

National Unity Party
AbbreviationEnglish: NUP
Burmese: တစည
ChairmanU Than Tin
Secretary-GeneralU Thein Tun
Vice Chairman and SpokesmanU Han Shwe
Founded24 September 1988 (1988-09-24)
Preceded byBurma Socialist Programme Party
HeadquartersBahan Township, Yangon
NewspaperNational News Journal
Membership (2015)500,000[1]
IdeologyBurmese nationalism[2]
Federalism[3]
Populism[4]
Social market economy[5]
Seats in the Amyotha Hluttaw
1 / 224
Seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw
0 / 440
Seats in the State and Regional Hluttaws
0 / 880
Party flag

History

The National Unity Party (NUP) was founded in 1988 as a proxy party of the military and the formerly ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) to contest the 1990 general election. The party was defeated by the National League for Democracy; however, the election was not recognized by the military and voided.[1]

The party's first chairman was Tun Yi, a former deputy commander of the armed forces, and their first general secretary was U Than Tin.[6] Tun Yi was succeeded by U Than Tin after the former's death in April 2014.[7][8]

Despite playing a minor role in Burmese politics after the 1990 general election, the party maintained close ties with the military junta until the start of political reforms in 2011; consisting mainly of former Ne Win loyalists, former BSPP members, and top military commanders up until that point.[9] It contested the 2010 elections as the main challenger to the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), as the NUP had nominated 999 parliamentary candidates nationwide (contesting at both regional and national levels), second only to the 1,100 candidates nominated by the USDP.[10] It has joined with opposition parties in accusations of vote rigging after suffering a massive defeat in the elections at the hands of the USDP.[11]

The party had 316 potential candidates for the Pyithu Hluttaw, 512 for the Amyotha Hluttaw and 528 for the State and Regional Hluttaws, during the 2010 general election. 12 candidates were chosen for the Pyithu Hluttaw, 5 candidates for the Amyotha Hluttaw, and 46 candidates for the State and Regional Hluttaws.[12][13]

In the 2015 general election, all 763 NUP candidates lost, except for one in Kachin State.[14]

Election results

House of Nationalities (Amyotha Hluttaw)
Election Leader Total seats won Total votes Share of votes +/– Government
2010 Tun Yi
5 / 224
 4,302,082 5 Opposition
2015 U Than Tin
1 / 224
 4 Opposition

House of Representatives (Pyithu Hluttaw)
Election Leader Total seats won Total votes Share of votes +/– Government
1990 U Thar Kyaw
10 / 492
 2,805,559 21.2% 10 Not recognised
2010 Tun Yi
12 / 440
 4,060,802 19.44% 2 Opposition
2015 U Than Tin
0 / 440
 12 Extra-parliamentary

By-election
Election Seats up for election Seats contested Contested seats won +/–
2012 37 (Pyithu) / 5 (Amyotha) 18 (Pyithu) / 4 (Amyotha) 0 (Pyithu) / 0 (Amyotha)

References
  1. "National Unity Party (NUP)". The Irrawaddy.
  2. Han, Naw Betty (27 September 2018). "National Unity Party sets up local chapters for 2020 race". The Myanmar Times. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  3. "National Unity Party presents its policy, stance and work programmes". Myanmar Digital News. 9 September 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  4. "တိုင်းရင်းသား စည်းလုံးညီညွတ်ရေးပါတီ". BBC News (in Burmese). 17 September 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  5. Kean, Thomas; Thu, Kyaw (28 June 2010). "NUP looks to distance itself from military". The Myanmar Times. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
  6. "National Unity Party". Election 2010. Mizzima. Archived from the original on 9 April 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  7. "President U Thein Sein meets political leaders, ethnic affairs ministers and ethnic representative leaders". http://globalnewlightofmyanmar.com/. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  8. ရွှရည်ဝင်းထက်. "လစ်လပ်နေသည့် တစညပါတီဥက္ကဋ္ဌနေရာ ဧပြီလကုန် ရွေးမည်". mizzimaburmese.com. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  9. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/international/news/20101110p2g00m0in092000c.html. Retrieved 2 April 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. Macan-Markar, Marwaan (31 October 2010). "Military rule haunts Burma election". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  11. "NUP Concedes Defeat". Burma Election 2010. The Irrawaddy. 10 November 2010. Archived from the original on 1 May 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  12. "Constituencies". 2010 Election Watch. Alternative Asean Network on Burma. 2010. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  13. "All legislatures". 2010 Election Watch. Alternative Asean Network on Burma. 2010. Archived from the original on 1 January 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  14. "Announcement 94/2015". Union Election Commission. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
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