The two newly merged Chin political parties have settled on a name: the Chin National Congress.
The Chin National Democratic Party (CNDP) and the Chin Progressive Party (CPP) agreed to combine forces last month. They will reregister under the new name within this month, according to chairpersons Pu No Than Kap and Pu Zu Zam.
The new name was selected from among a list compiled by members of both parties, with the majority preferring the Chin National Congress.
The Chin political parties had initially been negotiating for a tripartite merger following meetings in May, but the Chin League for Democracy wanted to unite all Chin parties into one combined force, rather than coalescing in a more piecemeal fashion.
The CLD is planning on staging a party conference in October, according to its chair, Salai Ngai Sak.
“We plan to discuss rebooting the Chin National League for Democracy (CNLD), which received support from the Chin people after the 1988 uprising. We considered reforming the CNLD before we established the CLD, but we couldn’t do it due to various reasons,” he said.
The current CNDP secretary, Salai Cieu Bik Thawng, said he is still optimistic about the potential for the Chin parties to fully unify.
“We have always kept the door open for Chin parties’ unification. We can’t give up on it yet,” he said.
