Smaller opposition parties without the fame and celebrity status of the National League for Democracy have reversed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s campaign slogan: Vote for the candidates, not the party, they say.

U Aung Myint, a physician, is hoping his status as a well-known local in his hometown of Pyin Oo Lwin will translate into votes. He’s resting his election bid on the expectation that the farmers of the township will want a local and a neighbour representing them, and not an unknown candidate beholden to a major political party.

“I am a local of Pyin Oo Lwin, so I am best able to represent this constituency and fulfill the needs of my hometown,” U Aung Myint said. “I am campaigning among familiar faces who are acquainted with my parents and my friends. Though the rival political parties are strong, I will contest with confidence.”

U Aung Myint is contesting a regional seat with the Federal Union Party, which was formed in December 2013 by 19 ethnic minority parties with the intention of ensuring minorities in Bamar-dominated regions have an ethnic candidate to vote for.

In Mandalay Region, the FUP has only U Aung Myint on its ticket. U Sein Win, chair of the party, said they are contesting only one Mandalay constituency because they don’t want to overlap with their brethren political parties.

“We allied with 23 political parties and we share similar convictions,” he said.

He added that the new party is making a quiet entrance into the political scene, and will have more ambitious plans for the 2020 election.

Competing in Pyin Oo Lwin puts the FUP up against heavyweights from the NLD and the Union Solidarity and Development Party, as well as candidates from the National Unity Party and the National Development Party. Many of the former hill station’s residents are military families, but the NLD swept the constituency’s Pyithu Hluttaw seat that was up for grabs in the 2012 by-election.

U Aung Myint Kyaw said voters should stay local for their regional hluttaw representative, but send a representative from bigger parties to the Union parliament.

“I urge voters to elect me to the regional hluttaw for the development of their region, and then they can vote for the other political party they like for Pyithu Hluttaw and Amyotha Hluttaw to form a government,” he said.

The constituency is a central battleground between the NLD and the USDP. Both parties have launched large campaigns in the area with decorated floats, pamphlets, signboards and door-to-door canvassing.

Incumbent chief minister of Mandalay and USDP regional chair U Ye Myint is hoping to hold fast to his Pyin Oo Lwin seat.

While Daw Aung San Suu has asked voters to consider not their candidate, but which party they want running the next government, U Ye Myint has also called on voters to consider each candidate’s eligibility, rather than their focusing too much on their party.

 Translation by Thiri Min Htun