CNI News
11 Nov 2022
Political parties’ working group the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee has called on the State Administration Council for amendment of over 70 sections of the 2008 Constitution.
The National Solidarity and Peace-making Negotiation Committee held negotiations with the political parties’ working group of the UPDJC on 28th October.
Daw Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein, a representative of the working group, told the CNI that she had called for an end to reserving 25 percent of parliament seats for military personnel in future parliaments.
She said, “I called for an end to reserving 25 percent of parliamentary seats for military personnel in the future parliaments if federal democracy governments are to be formed. I was not calling on them to withdraw from parliament overnight because the political situation is very complicated. The military is an indispensable institution in a country. So, I called on them for their reduced presence in the parliament by percentage.
Members of the NSPNC.
As the constitution must be amended at the parliament, the working group might have been discussing the proposed amendments, Chairman U Thar Tun Hla of the Arakan National Party told the CNI.
He said, “We don’t know their working procedures exactly. As far as I know, they were just discussing the proposed amendments and no significant agreements have been reached. However, the constitution can only be amended at the parliament. They might have been talking about it.”
Among the over 70 proposed amendments, the military reportedly agreed to revise Section 261 of the constitution.
A meeting between the NSPNC and political parties’ working group of the UPDJC.
Spokesperson Naing Than Shwe of the Mon Unity Party told the CNI, “There has been a large number of proposed amendments. Even our party submitted a research paper on constitutional amendments. Under the current circumstances, we have to submit proposed amendments to the UPDJC. I don’t remember exactly because there were too many proposed amendments. We will have to discuss with other political parties when we return from the working group meeting.”
The UPDJC is made up of 16 representatives from the government, the parliament and the military, 16 representatives from signatory EAOs to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and 16 representatives under the NCA.
As the military ousted the NLD government and declared a state of emergency on 1st February,2021, some EAOs have suspended participation in the UPDJC.
