Thuta Linn, BNI Election Newsroom — Skirmishes should not break out again during the election, Kachin State Democracy Party’s (KSDP) chairman Dr Manam Tu Jar told Vice Senior General Soe Win, deputy commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, in a meeting Tuesday morning.
“I have submitted [a request] to them to halt the fighting during the election. But we only got 15 minutes so we didn’t get to discuss details,” said Dr Tu Ja.
The party’s central executive committee members including the party’s chairman were invited to meet the deputy commander-in-chief at the Northern Command’s guest house.
Regarding his proposal for both the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the army to halt the fighting before holding the election, Dr Tu Jar told BNI that he was told by the army officials that the Burmese army did not intentionally launch the attacks and the skirmishes broke out between the two armies while the Burmese army was making patrols for regional security.
A former Vice Chairman for the Kachin Independence Organization, Dr. Tu Ja officially left the group in 2009 in order to form the Kachin State Progressive Party (KSPP). It was intended that this party would run in the 2010 national elections. Dr. Tu Ja however was prevented from registering for the 2010 election first as a candidate for his party and later as an independent candidate. This party was then dissolved.
Dr Tu Ja tried to run for office again in the round of by elections held in April 2012 but his hopes were dashed when government authorities blocked voting for the three seats in Kachin state because of unspecified “security reasons”. Dr Tu Ja formed his current party the KSDP in 2013.
