Fifteen Myanmar ethnic parties have agreed to unify as one, the Federal Union Party (FUP), at a conference in Taunggyi, the capital of Shan state, the local Union Daily reported Wednesday.

The 15 ethnic parties include those from such minorities as Shan, Chin, Rakhine, Mon, Kayan, Inn and Pa-O.

The formation of the unified party is made in preparation for the 2015 general election to be able to compete with some strong parties and to defend themselves against possible practicing of the system of proportional representation (PR) in the parliament, the report cited the conference sources as saying.

In the November 2010 multi-party general election, following the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the National Unity Party (NUP), which won the majority of the parliamentary seats, three ethnic parties -- Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), Rakhoine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) and All Mon Regions Democracy Party mainly occupied most minor number of the rest of the seats.

In the April 2012 by-elections, following the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) which swept almost all the open parliamentary seats, the ethnic party SNDP, also popularly known as the White Tiger Party, won one seat in the Upper House along with ruling USDP. Endi

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