Gearing up for the junta declared 2010 elections in Burma, an ethnic Kachin political party has opened 10 branch offices in main cities in Kachin State, said party sources.
The Kachin State Progressive Party (KSPP) will contest the 2010 elections in Kachin State and has opened branch offices in Myitkyina, Bhamo (Manmaw in Kachin), Momauk (N'Mawk in Kachin), Manje (Mansi), Waingmaw, Chipwi, Mohnyin, Mogaung, Danai (Tanai) and Puta-O, the sources said.
The party's spanking new two-storey building was inaugurated in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State on November 18. It is designated the party headquarters, said party officials.
The branch office in Bhamo, the second largest city in the state will be the second headquarters of the party, the officials added.
The party embarked on its campaign for the 2010 elections since early this year in Kachin State, though it is not an official political party till now.
Party officials said they have been mobilizing people for the elections on the verbal authorization of the junta's Lt-Gen Ye Myint, head of Military Affairs Security and chief Naypyitaw negotiator on transforming ethnic ceasefire groups to the Burmese Army controlled Border Guard Force, and Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of Northern Regional Command based in Myitkyina.
KSPP is led by Dr. Manam Tu Ja, former Vice-president No. 2 of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and leader of 17 ethnic ceasefire groups, who attended the junta-led 14-year National Convention for drafting the country's new and contentious constitution.
The KSPP was floated early this year with the support of three main Kachin organizations--- the KIO, former New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and the Kachin Nationals Consultative Assembly (KNCA) rather than in deference to the wishes of the Kachin people.
According to the junta’s seven-step roadmap to so-called disciplined democracy, the countrywide general elections will be held next year. However the military leaders are yet to announce the exact date of the polls.
Meanwhile, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's pro-democracy leader and General Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) remains incarcerated in her house in Rangoon.
