Despite financial hardship and a low interest in politics due to the COVID-19 world pandemic, the Union Election Commission (UEC) says they will not postpone the November election.
U Win Maw Oo, State Secretary with the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) believes people must be interested in politics in order to bring changes to the country in 2020.
“Now, [due to] COVID-19 people are facing financial hardship. The election is about to come, but people aren’t interested in politics. But when the election comes, people must be interested in politics in order to change their country’s fortune,” said U Win Maw Oo.
The decline of people’s interest in politics is not limited to the havoc created by COVID-19, but also related to the performance of the incumbent government, according to Min Aung Htoo, the Coordinator of the Mon State CSO Network.
“We have five months before the election. So it’s reasonable to have an election [in November]. The National League for Democracy (NLD) has been preparing for the election, but the other ethnic and opposition parties still have barriers due to the “Local Order” (C-19 protection measures) of the government. The ethnic and opposition parties have to try very hard to get votes from their local people,” said Min Aung Htoo.
The USDP collected a list of proposed election candidates two months ago, and reported them to the District/State Committee for Candidate Selection. Now the Central Committee is reviewing their proposed list.
“We instructed the township candidates to file their proposals. We reported the proposals to the District/State Committee for Candidate Selection. After that, they are reported to the Central Committee. Now the proposals are in the hands of the Central Committee,” said U Win Maw Oo.
The proposed election candidates for the Mon Unity Party (MUP) have been approved by the Central Executive Working Team, although that selection process was halted due to COVID-19. The candidate list was sent to the party Central Executive Committee on June 7, said the Party Secretary #2, Nai San Tin, to HURFOM on June 6.
“Soon after the approval of the central committee, we’ll start township campaign trips. We’ll explain to the people about the election candidate selection process, rules and regulations of the party and our election goal and strategy,” said Nai San Tin.
The last two general elections for Myanmar were both held in November. The 2010 general election was held on November 7, and the 2015 election was held on November 8th, 2015.
