The National Unity Party says its boasts a membership of about 500,000 and has offices in 306 of Burma’s 330 townships. The party is likely to be one of the most pervasive presences on the campaign trail nationwide, fielding more than 750 candidates in total.

In 1990, the NUP was the proxy party of the military and Gen. Ne Win’s Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), and as such was the National League for Democracy’s primary adversary in nationwide elections that year. A landslide NLD victory in that poll and the NUP’s abysmal showing—winning only 10 of the 413 seats it contested—would lead the military to annul the results, bringing another two decades of military rule to the country. The NUP returned to contest the 2010 general election and fielded the second-most candidates after only the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won a majority of seats in a contest boycotted by the NLD. The NUP won 64 of the 995 races it contested.

The NUP told The Irrawaddy that it had prioritized women and young people in compiling its candidate list for the 2015 general election, but ultimately female candidates make up just over 10 percent of the party ticket. As a party, the NUP says it will “heed the aspirations of the people, such as decentralization, liberty and human rights, poverty reduction, stable commodity prices, the elimination of bribery and protecting the rights of farmers.”

* States and divisions in red indicate that the party is fielding candidates at the Union or regional level in that jurisdiction. In addition to the 442 seats the party is contesting in state and divisional legislatures, it is fielding candidates for 12 ethnic affairs minister posts to serve in regional governments' cabinets.