The decision to form the Support Group for Victory in Elections (Ye Township) was made on 11 August, at the conference of United All Mon Nationals of Ye Township held at Mon Hall in Ye Town. Over 200 representatives, including Mon monks, Mon activists, and residents from four regions across Ye Township attended the conference.

There is already a main Independent Mon National Support Group for Victory in Elections, which is also known as M23 because it was founded by 23 Mon members.

Ko Soe, a participant in the 11 August conference from Ye Town said: “Because there is no possibility for the two Mon political parties to negotiate a merger, some [Mon activists] suggest we should select individual candidates to compete in the elections. But in the end, as M23 decided, we agreed to select candidates from the two parties’ who we think might be good.”

Min Ye Mon a resident of Lamine Town in Northern Ye Township, who is also a spokesperson for M23, said: “It was decided that 20 candidates, comprised of five candidates from each of the four regions in Ye Township, would be selected. At the moment, we have only chosen one leader per region from the representatives of the four regions.”

M23's objective is to maximise Mon representation in the Hluttaw (parliament) after the elections. M23 has already sent letters to the Mon parties and met their political leaders to request that they collaborate with each other so that only one Mon candidate competes in each area which will create a united ballot and not lose votes.

Because the two main Mon parties, the All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMDP) and the Mon National Party have not been collaborating Mon activists plan to promote individual independent candidates to compete in Ye Township. The activists also told the two Mon parties that they would only vote vote for sufficiently qualified and trusted party candidates who contest in Ye Township.

The preliminary candidate lists from the two Mon parties were announced and each party has five candidates to run for one Pyithu Hluttaw (lower house) constituency, two Amyotha Hluttaw (upper house) constituencies, and two State Hluttaw (state parliament) constituencies, in Ye Township.

According to the candidate list from the Mon State Election Sub-commission as of 12 August the sub-commission has received five candidate submissions from the MNP for five constituencies in Ye Township, while the AMDP, which has submitted no candidates for those constituencies.

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI