Working to a plan, where it wants to garner the maximum number of votes in Kachin state, the Burmese junta-sponsored ethnic Kachin party floated recently, has been quickly approved by the Union Election Commission ...
Working to a plan, where it wants to garner the maximum number of votes in Kachin state, the Burmese junta-sponsored ethnic Kachin party floated recently, has been quickly approved by the Union Election Commission for contesting the general elections later this year.
The Unity and Democracy Party of Kachin State (UDPKS), floated by former members of the junta-backed Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) was approved yesterday by the EC, the junta-run media said today.
Duwa Hkyet Hting Nan is leading the party and his three senior colleagues are Duwa Mading Zung Ting, Hpaula Gam Hpang and Lawyer Doi Bu.
The UDPKS was approved by the EC, within 16 days of registration. It is also the first Kachin party to be approved from among four Kachin parties registered with the EC.
The three other Kachin parties are the Kachin State Progressive Party-KSPP, United Democracy Party (Kachin) from Kachin State and Northern Shan State Progressive Party-NSPP from Shan State, which are awaiting approval for the past three months by the EC.
On July 3, the KSPP party, which could have represented the state if approved, held an emergency meeting with over 300 people, its regional party delegates and the Kachin public at the main party office in Kachin’s capital Myitkyina. Leaders explained why the party is not being approved by the EC.
The party was told by the EC that it cannot approve KSPP because it has tenuous links with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the main Kachin armed group, which rejected the junta-proposed transformation of “ethnic armed wings” to the Burmese Army-controlled Border Guard Force.
The party made a third and final appeal for approval to contest the yet undated election by sending a delegation led by Dr. Manam Tu Ja, retired vice-president No. 2 of KIO to the EC on July 13.
The junta-controlled EC approved 39 political parties from among 44 applicants for contesting the election, according to the junta-controlled media. Three of the five remaining political parties, which are awaiting approval of the EC, are Kachin parties.
