Burma: On Wednesday, Myanmar's military government took another significant step in its ongoing effort to obliterate its political rivals by dissolving dozens of opposition parties, including that of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, for missing an election-related registration deadline.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, or NLD, was one of 40 parties that the election commission ordered to be dissolved in an official statement released on Wednesday in the state-run media. Prior to being overthrown by the military in 2021, the NLD ruled Myanmar with resounding majorities in Parliament from 2015 to that time.

The NLD had already declared that it would not participate, calling the anticipated elections a fraud.

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The party and other critics claim that the still-unscheduled elections in a military-run nation that has shut down free media and detained the majority of Suu Kyi's party leaders will not be free or fair.

Despite the overwhelming victory of the NLD in the November 2020 elections, the army seized power in February 2021 and prevented all newly elected lawmakers from entering Parliament while imprisoning senior officials from Suu Kyi's government and party.

The army takeover was opposed by a sizable portion of the populace. Many opponents of military rule took up arms after peaceful protests were put down with deadly force, and war has broken out in large portions of the nation.

Suu Kyi, 77, is currently serving a 33-year prison sentence after being found guilty in a string of politically motivated cases brought by the military. Her backers claim that the accusations were made up to stop her from getting involved in politics.

Kyaw Htwe, a member of the NLD's Central Working Committee, asserted on Tuesday night that the party "will exist as long as the people support it," regardless of what the military decides.

When Suu Kyi appeared in court for the first time in person following the military coup in May 2021, he was referring to a message she sent to her supporters via her attorneys, in which she stated, "Since the NLD was founded for the people, the NLD will exist as long as the people exist."

The party will continue to carry out the duties given to it by the people. In a text message, Kyaw Htwe said.

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The army claimed that massive election fraud was the reason it staged its takeover in 2021, but independent election monitors found no significant irregularities. Some detractors of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who oversaw the takeover and is currently in charge of Myanmar, think he acted because the vote prevented him from achieving his goals.

The army's own plans called for the new polls to be conducted by the end of July. However, the military announced in February that its state of emergency would be prolonged by six months, delaying the potential deadline for holding an election. Security, it stated, could not be guaranteed. Large portions of the country are not under military control, and there is fierce armed opposition to the military's rule there.

According to a report released on Tuesday by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank, "no election can be credible amid the state oppression following the 2021 coup, especially when the majority of the populace sees a vote as a cynical attempt to replace the landslide victory of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in 2020."

The post-coup conflict will almost certainly get worse as the regime tries to force the polls through and the resistance groups try to sabotage them.

A new political party registration law that the military government passed in January makes it challenging for opposition groups to seriously challenge the army's preferred candidates. It establishes requirements for minimum levels of membership, candidates, and offices that would be challenging for any party to meet without the support of the army and its allies, especially given the oppressive political climate.

Existing political parties had until March 28 to reapply for registration with the election commission under the new law.

In the 2020 election, 90 parties participated; just under 50 of these have since been dissolved. The list of 50 current parties that had registered by the deadline on Tuesday was published by the election commission in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Wednesday.

Given that the surviving parties only garnered a small number of seats in the 2020 election and that the majority won't run national campaigns, it is unlikely that they will present a serious electoral challenge to the junta.

The state-run paper noted that out of the 63 parties, 12 will run nationwide election campaigns and 51 will do so exclusively in a single state or region.

In 2015 and 2020, the NLD narrowly defeated the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which registered once more. In 2020, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, an ally of the NLD, won the third-highest number of seats.

Thirteen new parties registered, and the announcement stated that there was still time for new parties to do so.

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1988 saw the establishment of the National League for Democracy following a failed uprising against military rule. It won a general election in 1990 that the nation's military rulers later declared invalid.

It was technically prohibited after refusing to participate in a 2010 election conducted by the military because it did not believe it was free or fair, but was permitted to register after deciding to run in 2011. Following a resounding victory in the general election of 2015, it assumed power.