Minister Aung Min Gives Rice to Voters During Campaign in Karenni State

Minister Aung Min Gives Rice to Voters During Campaign in Karenni State
by -
Kantarawaddy Times

Mu Estar, Karenni State — The Thein Sein government's chief peace negotiator U Aung Min has been distributing rice to every home in villages in Karenni State’s Shadaw Township during campaigning in the country's smallest state. Raincoats have also been donated to school children as well, the Kantarawaddy Times has learned. U Aung Min and his fellow cabinet colleague Soe Thane are both running as independent candidates in Karenni state, despite having little ties to the area.

Aung Min's generosity to the voters of Karenni state has raised the concern of opposition parties, some of whom question whether it is fair. Aung Min was the chief architect of the recently negotiated National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) which has not been endorsed by the Karenni state based Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP).  

Daw Sophania from the Shan Nationalities Democracy Party (SNDP), who is running in Demoso
Township’s Constituency No 1, said that she and other candidates from her party saw the items that had been donated by U Aung Min during his campaign rally when the visited local villages.

“They have seen the rice bags donated by U Aung Min to the villagers when they were campaigning in Shadaw,” she said.

During his visit to Shadaw on October 11, U Aung Min told the residents that he will donate SkyNet satellite dish sets and solar panels in each village and more rice depending on the population of the villages.

Some Shadaw residents have reportedly requested that U Aung Min build a road from Dawtanaw Village to Thaele Village. U Aung Min has indicated that in response to this request he will help arrange for funding for the road's constructions. Other villagers have requested that he build a town hall and village administration committees have already been planning for these projects.

A close ally of President Thein Sein, U Aung Min is running as an independent candidate in Upper House candidate for Karenni state Constituency No. 7 which includes parts of Shadaw Township. The entire township has only 4,000 eligible voters and Constituency No 7, where he is running has around 2,000 voters, one of the smallest constituencies in the whole country. Many of the rural Karenni population in Karenni State do not speak Burmese fluently but some young people do.

Shadaw Township saw a large exodus of people in the 1990's after an earlier ceasefire between the central government and the KNPP collapsed. Many of those who fled the area in the 1990's now live in two refugee camps located on the Thai-Burma border while others have resettled to the United States. The displaced residents from Shadaw living in the Thai refugee camps are not allowed to vote in the coming election. Few people have come back to the area since the KNPP signed a bilateral ceasefire with the central government in 2012.

Shadaw Township has a large military presence with two battalions under Division 55, as well as a battalion under the Regional Operations Commands and a border security company. Some of the voting stations are located on military installations. It remains unclear if election monitors will be allowed to visit polling stations on military bases during election day.

The military will guard 32 polling booths in Karenni State during the election period, including three polling booths in Shadaw Township.

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