Eastern Shan party will not contest by-elections
The Eastern Shan State Development Democratic Party
(ESSDDP) has said that it will not contest the upcoming bi-elections, which are
slated to be held on April 1 next year.
Sai Sam Tip Hsur, the vice chairman of the ESSDDP, which
was formed shortly before the 2015 general election, told Shan Herald
that his party had decided not to list candidates for the 2017 by-elections
because of a breakdown in cooperation with its sister parties, the Shan
Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) and the Shan National Democratic
Party (SNDP).
“I am sure we will not be able to win in eastern
Shan State if we [three Shan parties] do not unite,” he said. “Both the SNLD and
the SNDP will contest [the same constituencies]. I believe that if we do not
cooperate, we will all lose.
“If we believe that our nationality is the priority,
we must cooperate,” Sai Sam Tip Hsur emphasized. "No whether which party
wins – whether it is the SNDP or the SNLD – the outcome is that we all [Shan
nationals] win.”
He added: “I am sure that every Tai [Shan] loves his
or her national identity. However, if we continue to hold prejudices against
one another, we are going to lose.
“No one need beat us; we will lose the elections by
ourselves.”
The three ethnic Shan-based parties lost every seat in
eastern Shan State to the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development
Party (USDP) and the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the general election
last year.
The SNDP, also known as the White Tiger Party, had contested
207 seats in 68 townships in Kachin State, Kayah State and Shan State, as well
as Mandalay and Sagaing Divisions. However, it won only one State Assembly seat
in Mong Pan Township. The SNLD, which won a convincing victory in Shan State in
the 1990 elections, won a total of just 40 seats in last November’s elections.
Both SNDP and SNLD confirmed that they would contest
all available seats in the by-election next year.
By Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)
Tags: News, Politics
