Attorney General U Gyi Myint, a Union Attorney with a Legal Aid Group has suggested that borders of existing Districts in the country may have been expanded (or are expanding) to allow the military the ability to extend its ties more efficiently to District level governance systems.
Prior to the coup, there were 74 Districts in each region, but there are some recent reports emerging that suggest there will be only 42 districts across the country. There have also been unsubstantiated reports pointing to a very different District map picture, for example some social media sites claim there are plans to create up to 116 Districts.
U Gyi Myint said, this “… may be occurring to increase close ties in military areas. Another factor is that the Constitution does allow for the expansion of borders as needed”.
There are also existing laws that allow for boundaries of plots to be measured, determined and adjusted. It may follow that such allowances are used to justify revisions to District borders.
Some political analysts say the changes to the number of Districts may be underway to account for the possible introduction of a proportional representation ( PR ) system in the run-up to the August 2023 general election.
Interestingly it has been reported that Mon State which used to have only two districts, Mawlamyine and Thaton, now has two new districts added, Kyaikto and Ye. However, Mon News Agency has not yet been able to confirm this report with the authorities.
There had been a plan to expand Ye Township into a district dating back to Thein Sein’s time before the National League for Democracy ( NLD ) government, according to a lawyer in Mawlamyine.
