Sai YordKham — The Eastern Shan State Development Democratic Party (ESSDDP) will not be running for any seats in the 2020 election in November.
“Our ESSDDP party won’t run in the 2020 general election. Our party withdrew in May. We do not have enough human resources or party funds,” Lung Sai Hawng Kham, chair of the ESSDDP, told SHAN.
In a loss largely blamed on vote splitting, none of the three ethnic Shan political parties—the ESSDDP, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) nor the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP)—won representation in the nine townships of Kengtung, Tachileik or Mong Hsat districts in the 2015 election.
Kengtung Township was a major upset for supporters of ethnic Shan parties, with the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) winning all four seats in the township.
“I think if all Shan people vote for a Shan political party, a Shan party can win the election in Kengtung,” Sai Noom Kawn, a Kengtung-based member of the Tai Youth Organization, said of the 2020 race.
While the USDP and NLD are considered to be the strongest political rivals of the Shan parties in Kengtung, other ethnic parties will also contest the election in the township.
The SNDP won some representation in eastern Shan State in the 2010 election.
The ESSDDP—known in Burmese as the Mingalar Sidaw party—was formed by Shan political activists, Kengtung-based elders, and locals in 2015 to contest in the election that same year. They did not win any seats.
