[5][6][7] The NUP contested the 1990 general election and was seen as a proxy party of the Tatmadaw (military) and the main rival to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

[3][5] The NUP played a relatively minor role in Burmese politics after 1990 and maintained close ties with the Tatmadaw during the period of military rule under the State Peace and Development Council, which ended in 2011.

Before 2011, the party membership consisted mainly of former Ne Win loyalists, former BSPP members, and top military commanders.

[17] Despite the NUP's claims that it supports federalism, most of its members are former BSPP officials and military personnel, both of whom are known for their hardline anti-federalist, conservative, statist, and Burmese nationalist stances.

The third white star in the upper hoist symbolises the reconstruction of national unity between Myanmar's ethnic groups.

[2]: 4 The party's first chairman was U Thar Kyaw, a former member of the Council of State, a former minister and a former soldier who had joined the Tatmadaw in World War II, when it was known as the Burma Independence Army.

[22][23] U Thar Kyaw died on 9 May 2005, and the party's general secretary U Tun Yi, formerly the Deputy Commander of the Tatmadaw, succeeded.