With eight hot seats at stake in Shan State, Ye Mon tracks down electoral hopefuls and their challenges under the watchful eyes of armed elements there.
AS the by-election draws near, the candidates from various parties are feeling the heat while trying to win eight vacant seats in four townships, including Mongshu and Kyethi. This time the electoral struggle will not be business-as-usual, as some of the constituencies are in areas controlled by the Shan State Army.
Major parties are fielding candidates in the April 1 by-election, including the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD).
In Shan State, both the NLD and USDP candidates have to work hard under the watchful eyes of armed elements. There have been some complaints about the level of fairness in the contest. Obviously, the SNLD must try hard to make sure it will not lose its seats to other parties.
In the general election in November 2015, the polls were not open in Mongshu and Kyethi townships in southern Shan State due to fighting between the Tatmadaw and SSPP. This time around, the Union Election Commission had declared that it will be possible to hold free and fair elections in the two townships.
The candidates eyeing seats in the townships, which are near SSPP headquarters, are facing difficulties. They have to go through several procedures such as first informing village headmen when and where they want to campaign. Then, the village headmen ask for permission from the SSPP
Kyethi township’s state parliament candidate U Sai Moe Kyaw Thu of USDP lamented that the electoral atmosphere could not be free and fair if candidates do not have permission to campaign freely.
“They [SSPP] have to first grant permission for all election campaigning. But we feel that the campaigning is not free. We have told the election sub-commission about the restrictions. But there has been no progress,” he said.
Among the five political parties contesting seats in the by-election for Kyethi and Mongshu, the SNLD, popularly known as ‘Tiger Head’, is known to have close ties with the SSPP, and other parties have begun talking about voting bias and saying the SNLD has a better chance to win.
U Sai Thant Zin Lin, the NLD candidate for Kye-thi, said that although the SNLD also has to ask for permission to campaign, they have more freedom than other parties. “We cannot do better than the SNLD during the election campaign. It is a challenge for NLD and other political parties,” he said.
Captain Sai Phone Han, a spokesperson for the SSPP, told The Myanmar Times that every political party is free to campaign and he rejected accusation of bias against outside political parties that restricts their activities. He said the SSPP will not disturb the by-election process. “We won’t cause problems,” he said.
The security issue is pivotal to the by-election being held in Shan State. Since all the security forces belong to the Tatmadaw, police and SSPP, the election commission has refused to accept security provided by the armed groups, and the candidates have decided to use public security for election day.
In a surprise move, NLD candidates submitted a letter on March 20 to the Loileng District election sub-commission urging them to cancel the by-election at three village tracts in Mongshu due to the security situation there. Subsequently, all concerned authorities, including those from the four parties, met to discuss the NLD letter but agreed to proceed with the election.
On March 25, the Union Election Commission announced they would not cancel the by-election in three villages in Mongshu but would instead move the polling stations from those village tracts to the town.
U Than Lwin Myint, secretary of Shan State’s election commission, revealed that they submitted the NLD letter along with the recommendations of all parties concerned to the UEC, which ultimately rejected the request to cancel the voting. “It is not possible to cancel the by-election in those areas because villagers there did not vote in 2015. We owe them,” he said.
According to the agreement among political parties, the election sub-commission and armed groups, the voting results will be cancelled if anyone disturbs or exerts any pressure on voters during polling day. The political parties expressed concerns that pressure by the SSPP would boost the SNLD’s chances of winning.
U Sai Thant Zin Lin, the NLD candidate for Kyethi, said that an atmosphere of unfairness due to pressure from the SSPP will block other parties from winning. “We will see on April 1 whether the by-election is really fair or not,” she said.
Daw Nan Kaung Khan, the SNLD’s Pyithu Hluttaw candidate from Mongshu, denied that the party has close relations with the SSPP. Responding to criticism levied by other political parties, she asserted that the people will vote for the Shan ethnic party without any pressure.
“SSPP is Shan ethnic armed group and our SNLD is a Shan party. Don’t be afraid of a non- free or unfair by-election. I believe the SSPP won’t exert any pressure,” she said.
SSPP spokesman Major Sai Su said that if anyone from his group pressures voters, the SSPP will take action immediately. “We promise that we won’t disturb the by-election. Please don’t worry about that,” he said.
