Mya Wun Yan — A driver in Shan State attempted to deliberately crash his car head on into a vehicle carrying Union PaO National Organization (UPNO) candidates U Khun Zaw Tun and Nan May Pan Wah, the UPNO alleges.
U Khun Zaw Tun said the attempt was made between Nan Paw Tunn and Yay Htwet Gyi at 7:20 pm on Sunday night.
“We were coming back from Naungday to Hopong. Our car was parked by the roadside between Yay Htwet Gyi and Nant Paw”, U Khun Zaw Tun explained.
“We were beaming our headlights. We couldn't see their license plates well. It probably was an unlicensed car. We saw a grey extra cab car. We saw three people inside the car. We also saw another car that we assumed to be from the same group,” said U Khun Zaw Tun.
The incident left the tire of U Khun Zaw Tun’s car damaged and the car body scratched. Since the campaign began the UPNO has seen many of their party signboards vandalized. In another incident someone threw a rock at their car.
“When we were coming back from our campaign in Hsi Hseng Township, a rock was thrown at us from inside a bush. There may be more worse incidents. We won’t be able to do the campaign at night. As we have informed the authorities about lack a police manpower and security, we can’t totally depend on them. They have replied that they have been monitoring in civilian clothes but I haven’t noticed them on our trips,” he said.
He added that he will continue to carry out what needs to be done and he cannot say at this point how fair the election will be.
Like the UPNO, signs belonging to the the National League for Democracy (NLD), the PaO National Organization (PNO) in central Shan state also been vandalized as well. The UPNO has reported the incidents to the police forces to investigate.
Translated by Thida Linn with editing by BNI staff.