“From our Mon ethnic people, there are two Mon political parties. So, for Mon people, each of their individual ballots should not be given to other parties. Rather, the ballots should be cast to Mon parties. I am not saying to vote for this Mon party, or that Mon party, but to vote for one of the Mon parties that you like,” said Nai Aye Mon, member of NMSP’s central executive committee (CEC).
NMSP stands by the urgency to vote for Mon parties, and this was felt during a press conference on July 9, at NMSP liaison office in Three Pagodas Pass Town, on the Thai-Burma border, after the meeting between NMSP and its related organisations.
At the meeting, the participants in attendance were Nai Hong Sar, the vice-chairman of the NMSP, Nai Aye Mon, in-charge of NMSP’s foreign affair department, the battalion commander and officials of NMSP’s armed wing Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA) No. (5), members of the NMSP based in TPP, and members of the Mon Youth Progressive Organization (MYPO) and staff members from [NMSP’s] education and health departments.
“For the NMSP, we would like these two parties to become one party. But they haven’t become united as one yet. Although in the past Mon monks and Mon people worked hard to have two parties become one, it did not succeed,” said Nai Aye Mon.
Last June, at the Mon Literature Talk held at Thanbyuzayat Town, Nai Hong Sar said, in response to questions from the audience [in the questions-and-answers session], that it’s necessary to vote for the representatives from two Mon political parties but with careful consideration based on his or her qualifications.
“Voters must consider the facts of each individual representative, of what he/she did in the past and is doing in the present, and what he/she has done for our people and what he/she has sacrificed for the people,” said Nai Hong Sar.
Mon National Party(MNP) and All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMDP) will contest not just in Mon State but in certain constituencies in Karen State and Tenasserim Division.
MNP competed in the 1990 elections under the party name, Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF), and MNP was then changed to Mon Democracy Party (MDP) in 2012, and then finally changed to MNP in 2014.
MNP did not compete in the 2010 elections. The AMDP, however, was founded by various Mon ethnic leaders and competed,.
The Union Election Commission already made the announcement for the election date, November 8, 2015.
