The order from the Mon State Chief Minister was read by the administrators of the Township General Administration Department (Township Peace and Development Council, TPDC) in different villages in the township.

“It [the order] is not mine. It came from the Mon State Chief Minister, and I just read the order by selecting the name from him,” explained the Mudon Administrator of Township General Administration Department to deflect blame at a recent meeting with villagers.

Phee-do, Kamar-oak, and King-chaung villages in Mudon Township have already selected their village tract heads. Union Solidarity and Development Party members were elected as heads of the village tract at Kamar-oak and King-chaung villages, and a member of the All Mon Region Democracy Party (AMDP) is the head at Phee-do village.

The village authorities only invited villagers who are close to them when the Administrator of Township General Administration Department arrived at the villages. At the meetings, the authorities selected the heads of the village tracts from between two persons selected by the Mon State Chief Minister.

The lists of potential heads of village tracts were sent to the Mon State Chief Minister on 25 April, and ten people per village were then sent to the Mon State Chief Minister.

On 20 July, the township USDP office called a meeting of their members to get more votes in the coming elections, and to tell their members to organize ten new members each, according to a source close to an attendant member. The USDP has five hard-core members per village.

USDP also distributed membership cards to their members in the villages on 22 July.

Terms and times for repeated appointments of the heads of wards or village tracts have not been set according to the speech of Home Affairs Minister U Maung Oo at the People’s Parliament in March. Mon people worry about choosing representatives that are close with the authorities.