In a move to woo voters, members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in Shan State North’s capital Lashio have been telling people that during its poll campaign, the party will provide free health care, according to local residents.

Come September 3, Lashio USDP members are planning to campaign in Mark Khinu village tract, about eight miles northeast of Lashio. A health care team will travel with the campaigners. The health service team will be led by Dr Sai Mawk Hkam, the owner of a private clinic, Yuli Kha (Do Be Well) and an USDP candidate for Lashio. He is also chairman of the Shan State Literature and Culture Committee (Lashio).

“On 31 August, Dr. Sai Mawk Kham and Aung Myint Oo ordered us to inform people to gather at one place on September 3 because they will come to explain the USDP’s policy and they will also provide free health care to everyone,” a villager from Mark Khinu said. “They said they will also provide medicine free.”

After Mark Khinu, the party will continue campaigning in Nam Pawng village tract, southwest of Lashio, according to a villager in Nam Pawng. “The party said they will provide free heath care, but we have to vote for the party on the day of election.”

But villagers from some areas who don’t have ID cards, especially the ethnic Chinese community will receive ID cards if they vote for the USDP, an informed villager on the outskirts of Lashio said.

“On 26 August, USDP member and militia leader U Myin Lwin aka Wang Guoda, an ethnic Chinese came to meet the ethnic Chinese community in Quarter No. 5 saying that the USDP will provide ID cards for the community if they promise to cast votes for the party,” he said.

There are over 200 ethnic Chinese living in the quarter, according to him.

So far, there are two USDP candidates, who have been most active in Lashio district: Sai Naw Kham Oo and Dr. Sai Mawk Kham. Dr. Sai Mawk Kham has been nominated as a candidate to contest for the lower house. He has been traveling to campaign in areas in Shan State North after he was assigned by the military junta to become Lashio USDP member in June.

In early July, Dr. Sai Mawk Kham, at one of his campaigns in Lashio, was reported to have told his audience ‘to use your heads rather than your hearts.”

If they were bent only on using their hearts, he said, “There will be only 2 j’s for you to choose: ‘jail or jungle’ (meaning imprisonment by junta or joining the armed resistance).”