The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), whose senior members, the generals, announced last week the formation of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), have issued instructions to its regional branches at about the same time to come up with a list of party members, executive committee members and poll candidates, according to a report from the Thai-Burma border.
The party, facing shortage of campaign funds, is said to be also looking for successful people in the business sector both for contributions and to nominate as candidates.
The newly formed USDP, if it aims to contest all the available seats are going to need trillions of kyat, said a Thai-Burma border watcher.
According to him, altogether 1,158 seats will be contested:
Upper House 168 seats
Lower House 330 seats
State/ Region legislatures 660 seats (not counting the uncontested 386 seats reserved for the military)
In the 1990 elections, the application for one candidate was K 500 ($5), according to Manko Ban, elected representative of Shan State’s Faikhun (Pekhon) township. The exchange rate then was K 100 to the dollar. The application fee has now jumped up a hundred fold to K 500,000 ($ 500).
According to a source from Rangoon, a candidate is allowed to spend up to K 10 million ($10,000) for canvassing.
In Mongton, opposite Chiangmai, a well-known wealthy resident has reportedly been approached with a request to contest on a USDP ticket. “He said he would be happy to comply with the request if he could learn more about the party’s aims and expectations,” said the informed source who requested his identity be withheld.
Many residents who are keen about politics, he added, are saying that they don’t entertain much hope in the forthcoming elections. “If big parties like the NLD and SNLD do not contest, there’ll be only the junta party in the race which will comfortably win it for sure,” he said. “Most other parties, we know, are small ones set up on the order of Naypyitaw.”
Other sources agree. One pointed out the PaO National Organization (PNO), whose leader Aung Kham Hti is a leading member of the USDA Shan State South branch. Another claimed top members of the Wa Democratic Party (WDP) that has recently been allowed to register were former members of the defunct Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP), National Unity Party (NUP) and USDA. “They don’t represent the interests of the Wa people,” he said.
