Youth party leaders selected by the NLD may be nominated as MPs in the 2015 elections. The young candidates will be selected at the NLD youth conference, and may also be eligible for party leadership positions, said executive committee member Nyan Win.
In an interview with Mizzima, Nyan Win said that the conferences were a “step by step process”, starting at the township level, followed by district and state levels. The NLD expects it will hold its central conference sometime in the near future when the final candidates will be revealed.
The NLD announced on July 9 that the current nominees include 24 youths from various divisions.
“We have two years to prepare for 2015. Within these two years, it is possible for skillful young [MP] candidates to emerge,” said Ko Sai Min Thein, an NLD youth executive from Tikegyi Township. “I am sure that this opportunity will be available to them.”
The announcement follows concerns about the unity of the NLD. At its recent nationwide conference, prior to the youth conference, there were significant disagreements between party members on a number of issues, followed by multiple resignations.
“It is true that during the last executive conference we had displeasure, disunity, contentions among each other,” said Ko Sai Min Thein. Despite this, the youth representatives remain hopeful that the party will solidify before 2015.
“There might be contentions among youth members too, but we welcome positive competition,” said Ko Sai Min Thein. “Because of the situation Myanmar is in, freedom of choice is not common and we need to adjust to that.”
However concerns over divisions still remain. Some members believe that the youth elections should have begun from village or ward level, as opposed to the larger townships, claiming that some will miss out.
“In my opinion, I don’t like the way it was done. It would be much better if they started from ward to township, and then township to district,” said Ko Thi Han, a member of NLD’s Yangon campaign group.
“There is already a lot of youth party members at ward level, and there might be problems accommodating them if the conference elections start at township levels and skip that step,” he said.
A list of the 24 selected youth candidates has not yet been released. However they will likely become feature figures within NLD in the lead up to the 2015 election.
