Burma’s ethnic political parties welcome the Union Election Commission’s (UEC) decision to cancel national by-elections, which were originally planned to take place later this year.
The decision to cancel the 2014 by-elections was announced by UEC Chairman U Tin Aye during a September 7th conference with political parties in Rangoon; ethnic political parties have welcomed the UEC’s decision to cancel the elections.
According to an article published by the Myanma Ahlin Newspaper on September 8th, the UEC Chairman decided to cancel the by-elections because it would cost the Union government 2 billion kyat and a lot of human resources to host the elections.
When the UEC announced that by-elections to fill 35 vacant seats would be held in November and December of this year political parties scrambled to prepare for the election.
“If this by-election does not take place, it is better [for us] in the 2015 general election,” said Mon National Party (MNP) Vice-Chairman-1 U Htet Lwin, “So our party agrees with and welcomes the cancelation and other parties also agree. Now we have more time to prepare to campaign for the upcoming general elections.”
According to U Saw Than Myint from the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), cancelling the by-elections gives the SNDP more time to prepare for the 2015 general elections.
“Canceling the by-elections does not cause any problems for our new party. To speak frankly, now we don’t have to exhaust ourselves twice. We accept the by-election cancellation. This coming summer, we will start party campaigns [for the 2015 general elections],” said U Saw Than Myint.
The National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 43 of 45 seats in the 2012 by-elections, also accepted the UEC’s decision to cancel the by-election.
The Mon National Party (MNP) and the All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMDP) told IMNA in a previous interview that they would not compete in the 2014 by-elections.
