Mai Kaung Saing — An ethnic Ta’ang party, that is running candidates in seven townships in northern Shan State, says that the ongoing conflict affecting other parts of the state are not a problem for the party's campaign activities.
Twenty-seven candidates from the Ta’ang (Palaung) National Party (TNP) are running in Mantong, Namhsan, Namtu, Namhkam, Muse, Kutkai, and Kyaukme townships in northern Shan State and Mogok Township in Mandalay Region.
U Aung Win from the TNP, who is running for a seat in the State Parliament Constituency No 1 from Namhkam says things have being going well for his party so far. “The security status is good for campaigning in the villages. The main difficulties in campaigning are bad roads and communications. When our Ta’ang Party is running against big parties, we have some difficulties with the budget. The big parties can spend more money so they have an advantage,” he said.
In addition to the Ta’ang National Party, four other parties are in running in Namhkam Township, where a large number of Ta’ang people reside. The parties are the National League for Democracy (NLD), the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (White Tiger Party), the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (Tiger Head Party), and the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
U Aik Moon from the TNP, who will run for the State Parliament Constituency No 1 in Kutkai town, says things have been going well for his party. “We have campaigned in nearly all the areas in Kutkai. The security status was good while we were campaigning. The voter list will be posted again on November 3rd so I want to urge the public to not forget to check whether they are included in the voter list,” he said.
All five of the parties running in Namkham Township are also running in running Kutkai Township. The Shan State Kokang Democratic Party is also running there as is an independent candidate.
