Myanmar ruling party aims for poll `landslide" despite reshuffle
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Yangon (dpa) - Myanmar's ruling party said Monday it could win a large majority in upcoming general elections, despite tensions within the party that resulted in the ousting of one its senior figures last week.
The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) said it had registered 1,178 candidates, including at least 58 former senior military officers, for the elections scheduled for November 8.
"We are hoping to win the election with a clear vision. We even can win an election landslide," USDP central committee member Paik Htwe said in a news conference in the administrative capital Nay Pyi Taw.
The statement came days after former party chairman Shwe Mann was sacked from the post by President Thein Sein, in a dispute over the number of election candidates from the military.
Shwe Mann had reportedly excluded almost all the former army officers from the candidate lists against Thein Sein's instructions. He was also seen as too close to opposition party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, media reports said last week.
Shwe Mann, who still retains his role as a parliamentary speaker, met Suu Kyi on Monday morning in parliament in Nay Pyi Taw, reports said, without giving details of the meeting.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has registered 1,138 candidates for the November polls.
In total, some 5,632 candidates from 90 political parties had registered as of August 14, electoral authorities said.
