SNDP ‘will win’ 2017 by-election, says Sai Ai Pao
The Shan Nationalities Democratic
Party (SNDP) will win next April’s by-elections in Shan State, according to
party chairman Sai Ai Pao.
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Photo by SHAN- Sai Ai Pao, the chairman of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP).
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“We will contest the two vacant seats in the Pyithu
Hluttaw [Lower House of Parliament] and the five seats in the regional
parliament,” said Sai Ai Pao, the former Shan State minister of forestry and mining.
“We are contesting them because we believe we will win. If not, we would not
compete.”
The SNDP chairman called for next
year’s polls to be free and fair, adding that armed groups should not interfere
in the process. He also called for advanced voting to be transparent.
A total of 18 vacant seats will be
up for grabs in both Union and regional parliaments when by-elections are held on
April 1 next year, according to an announcement from the Union Election
Commission (UEC) on October 11.
The SNDP won only one seat in the 2015 general election, a far
cry from the 57 seats it won in the 2010 election (21 seats in the upper
and lower houses; 36 seats at state level).
The party was formed in
2010 by a group mostly made up of former members of the Shan Nationalities
League for Democracy (SNLD) at a time when several of that party’s leaders were
serving lengthy prison sentences, including SNLD Chairman Khun Htun Oo and General-Secretary
Sai Nyunt Lwin.
Polls were cancelled in many parts
of Shan State during the general election in 2015 due to ongoing clashes
between Burmese government forces and the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State
Army (SSPP/SSA). Constituencies where polling was postponed include Kehsi and
Monghsu townships in central Shan State, and Kengtung Township in eastern Shan
State.
Polling was also cancelled in areas
under the control of the United Wa State Army, such as Pangsang, Narpan,
Pangwai and Mongmaw; as well as Mongla Township, which is the base of the
Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA). The UEC maintains that those
areas are still too volatile for by-elections to take place next year.
By Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)
Tags: News, Politics
