The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By NYEIN NYEIN / THE IRRAWADDY Phyo Phyo Aung, front row, third from left, sits among fellow members of the ABFSU's organizing committe (Photo: abfsu.net ) When Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy Delta region of Burma in May 2008, student activist Phyo Phyo Aung was in hiding. She had gone underground six months earlier following the government’s brutal crackdown on the Saffron Revolution, a mass monk-led uprising in which she played a prominent role.

By Mizzima News Burma’s Union Election Commission abolished two newly registered political parties for their failure to run for at least three vacant seats in the coming April 1 by-elections, according to Xinhua news agency. A total of 17 political parties including 11 old and six newly registered parties will run in by-elections, according to local media. An election commission announcement on Wednesday said the two political parties are the Democratic Alliance Party and 88-Forces of People's Party. There are 48 vacant seats in Parliament at three levels available for contest in the by-elections. Of the 48 seats in constituencies in 10 regions or states, 40 are for the Lower House, six for Upper House and two for region or state parliaments. Both the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), and the ruling party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), will contest in all 48 vacant constituencies. In the lead-up to the election, n