Irrawaddy-Sept 3
Nine of the 61 parties registered for the coming election will contest nationwide, the Election Commission announced. The rest will run in regional or state constituencies.
They include the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the National Unity Party (NUP), the People’s Pioneer Party (PPP), and the People’s Party led by Ko Ko Gyi. The Democratic Party of National Politics (DNP), the Myanmar Farmers Development Party (MFDP), the Shan and Ethnic Democratic Party (SEDP), the Women’s Party (Mon), and the National Democratic Force Party (NDF) will also compete in all constituencies across the country. The USDP, NUP, and DNP are led by ex-generals, with the USDP chaired by former Brigadier General Khin Yi, one of coup leader Min Aung Hlaing’s right-hand men. Khin Yi and other senior USDP leaders are busy recruiting new party members ahead of the election, travelling all over the parts of the country where the junta’s writ still runs. Following the 2020 general election, which the NLD won by a landslide, the USDP party was the first to seek help from then-military Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing to intervene, leading to the coup in February 2021. The PPP is led by Thet Thet Khine, a former National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker expelled from the party in 2018, who was appointed by minister for social welfare as well as hotel and tourism minister under the junta. Many resistance groups including ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) as well as international have denounced the planned elections as sham and warned of military action against the junta’s election staff. Several international rights organizations and election watchdogs have also denounced the junta’s planned poll. Read more at:
