KNPP fears vote splitting in Kayah state showdown with Government Ministers

KNPP fears vote splitting in Kayah state showdown with Government Ministers
by -
Kantarawaddy Times

The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) has called on local parties campaigning in Kayah state to work out an agreement and avoid vote splitting in constituencies where local candidates face two well connected government ministers from President Thein Sein's cabinet.

"If the public vote for separate candidates, the votes will be split. Here U Aung Min has his own army. If he has his own army, government and general administration supporting him, he will persuade them,” said Khu Nyae Reh, a Loikaw based liaison officer for the KNPP, an armed group based in Kayah State who signed a ceasefire with the central government in 2012.  His comments were made during a public meeting in Loikaw the state capital last week.  Khu Nyae Reh also urged the public to vote for local candidates who will actually contribute to the public good.

U Aung Min the government's chief negotiator during the ongoing peace process with Burma's various armed ethnic groups officially resigned his position in order to run in a seat for the upper house known as Karenni-7.  The constituency includes Shadaw Township, one of the smallest constituencies by population in the whole country.  

His cabinet colleague Soe Thane who served as the Coordinating Minister for Economic Development, is running in another also equally small constituency in the state that covers half of Bawlakhe Township.  Both men ran in other far larger constituencies during the 2010 election.  Aung Min, a retired major general was previously Minister for Railways during General Than Shwe's military regime.  Soe Thane (also spelled Soe Thein) was previously Commander in Chief of the Burmese Navy.  

According to Khu Nyae Reh during his visit to Shadaw earlier this month, U Aung Min told the KNPP leadership that he entered the election in order not to lose his political dignity and that he had already secured a ministerial position.

Local people's concerns about the election and the ongoing ceasefire process were the topic of last weeks's meeting which Khu Nyae Reh and some of the representatives of local ethnic parties attended.  

 “The [former] union ministers have been giving out tons of gifts even before candidate campaigning starts . . . These issues make us worry,” said U Mirae Ye Aung from the All Nationalities Democracy Party (Kayah State), who is running for a seat in the Demoso Township Constituency No 1.

Many local candidates were concerned after Soe Thane, who also officially resigned  as minister in order to contest the seat appeared to spend lavishly to garner local support giving SkyNet satellite sets to civil servants and awards to students who passed their annual exams.  He also handed out solar panels, a useful present in rural Kayah state where electricity remains out of reach for many.

Shadaw Township, where Aung Min is running, saw a large exodus of people in the 1990's after an earlier ceasefire between the central government and the KNPP collapsed.  Many of those who fled the area in the 1990's now live in two Karenni camps located on the Thai-Burma border while others have resettled to the United States.

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