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| Burmese forces surround ruling party headquarters and confine MPs – report | Burmese forces surround ruling party headquarters and confine MPs – report |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Related: Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi confirms her party will contest November elections | Related: Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi confirms her party will contest November elections |
| Burmese security forces have surrounded the headquarters of the country’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development party in the capital, Naypyitaw, and prevented party members from leaving, party sources in the building said on Thursday. | |
| “Police entered the party compound last night. Since then no one was allowed in or out,” Toe Naing Mann, the son of parliament speaker and Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) leader Shwe Mann, told Agence France-Presse on Thursday morning. | “Police entered the party compound last night. Since then no one was allowed in or out,” Toe Naing Mann, the son of parliament speaker and Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) leader Shwe Mann, told Agence France-Presse on Thursday morning. |
| Several trucks of soldiers and police officers arrived at the compound at around 10pm on Wednesday, sources said. “We have not been allowed to move around since late yesterday,” said one party member. | |
| The secretary general of Myanmar’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development party (USDP) said on Thursday that senior party members had ousted him from his position. “They called me and told me that I don’t need to come to the office any more,” Maung Maung Thein told the Reuters news agency by telephone. | |
| #BREAKING: #Myanmar ruling party Secretary General Maung Maung Thein says has been removed from his position, @Reuters reports | |
| Maung Maung Thein said he had been at home and not at the USDP headquarters late on Wednesday when security forces arrived. | |
| Toe Naing Mann, the speaker’s son, said “so-called guards” were also at his father’s residence in the capital. | Toe Naing Mann, the speaker’s son, said “so-called guards” were also at his father’s residence in the capital. |
| The moves comes amid an ongoing tussle for control of the USDP. Tension has reportedly risen between leaders of the military-backed government over the selection of candidates to run in the 8 November general elections. | |
| The elections – which had been touted as potentially the most free in decades – are set to be contested by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was a thorn in the side of the previous junta regime with her years of campaigns for democracy. | The elections – which had been touted as potentially the most free in decades – are set to be contested by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was a thorn in the side of the previous junta regime with her years of campaigns for democracy. |
| Aung San Suu Kyi has called repeatedly for the military to withdraw from politics. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) will be the ruling party’s main challenger in the election. | |
| Toe Naing Mann, who said he was monitoring the situation through contacts from Yangon, said it was not clear what was behind the move by security personnel late on Wednesday. “It is strange that armed forces have restricted a political party in this way,” he told AFP. | |
| Recent months have seen growing talk of animosity between Shwe Mann and President Thein Sein, both former generals who shed their uniforms to take part in controversial 2010 polls that heralded a new quasi-civilian government which has ushered in sweeping reforms. | Recent months have seen growing talk of animosity between Shwe Mann and President Thein Sein, both former generals who shed their uniforms to take part in controversial 2010 polls that heralded a new quasi-civilian government which has ushered in sweeping reforms. |
| The USDP has been the vehicle for the former junta elites to metamorphose from soldiers to MPs. On Wednesday senior USDP member Aung Ko told AFP that the party had received “more than a hundred” applications from recently retired military officers and cabinet ministers looking to stand in the elections for the party. | |
| The military, which ruled Myanmar for 49 years and maintains an effective veto over the political system, has resisted recent efforts to introduce constitutional amendments to loosen its grip. | |
| The constitution reserves 25% of seats in parliament for unelected military officers. Making changes to the constitution requires the support of at least 75% of lawmakers, giving the military an effective veto. A proposed amendment that would have seen the threshold of support lowered to 70% failed, as expected, in a June vote. | |
| Shwe Mann has publicly welcomed the idea of working closely with Aung San Suu Kyi and has set himself up in opposition to the still powerful army on key issues – including the constitutional reform debates that have centred on reducing the military’s political power. |