Political parties have hit the campaign trail in northern Arakan State as Burma prepares for its first election in 20 years, said an opposition candidate from Maungdaw Township.

The National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD) members travelled throughout Maungdaw Township earlier this week, visiting the villages of Bawli Bazaar, Mangla Gyi (Paran Pru), Kyauk Hla Gar and Krat Ru Pyin meeting local residents.

The supporters of NDPD said that before the recent campaigning, most villages had expressed support for the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) candidates, but that recent campaigning had seemed to change many people’s minds.

The three other parties contesting next month’s election in Maungdaw Township include the USDP, the National Unity Party (NUP) and the National Development and Peace Party (NDPP).

The USDP has been allowed to campaign over a month ago, but the NDPD has been forced to apply in advance for permission to campaign in venues other than their office in Maungdaw town, said a Maungdaw resident who asked not to be named.

Moreover, USDP, NDPP and NUP parties have been able to raise a considerable amount of money for the election, while the NDPD has only limited financial resources and has largely limited its campaigning, the resident said.

Reports have surfaced from village residents that the USDP has been selling its membership cards for the last several days at 500 Kyat. Every village authority has been ordered to sell USDP cards in their areas.

Residents who have seen the cards told Kaladan News that it contains a photograph of the member, along with the member’s name, the name of the member’s parents, occupation, permanent address and membership number.

But the NDPD party has continued to struggle to find funds for their campaign.

“We do not have enough money. We cannot do much work. But we walk to reach every village in Maungdaw Township,” said one NDPD organizer.

This is in sharp contrast to reports that USDP candidates go from village to village in a luxury SUV brought in from Rangoon, said a local village elder in Maungdaw.

More than 3,000 candidates from 37 parties will contest the November 7 elections, with 1,171 seats available in national and regional parliaments, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win told the UN General Assembly last month in New York.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962, and activists and western governments say the election is aimed at simply legitimizing the military’s control.

Burma’s constitution, adopted in 2008, reserves 25 per cent of parliamentary seats for the military, while the junta’s proxy parties are considered to have a major advantage in contesting the remaining seats.

Under Burma’s restrictive campaign rules, candidates for all parties are barred from holding flags or raising slogans in processions and are prohibited from distributing any publication deemed to taint the image of the ruling junta.

Markedly absent from campaigning is the National League for Democracy (NLD), which swept the 1990 election but was never allowed to form the government.

The NLD was dissolved earlier this year after its decision not to participate in the November 7 election.

Some voters in Maungdaw are taking a purely practical approach to the ensuing vote.

“I know nothing and I am not interested in politics,” said a day labourer from Maungdaw. “I only know that I will get 2,000 Kyats for any work that I do. That will be enough to support my family for one day.”