Mon State resistance forces have called on Mon State residents not to support political parties that are collaborating with the junta by participating in the upcoming junta organised elections.
The junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has said that the junta will hold elections by the end of this year or early next year. Since he announced the elections some junta-approved political parties in Mon State have begun preparing to participate in them. They have been conducting pre-election activities, such as recruiting new members and opening new branch offices.
Nai Naga, spokesman for the Mon State Revolutionary Force (MSRF), a Mon resistance group, urged the public not to support these parties. He emphasised that their plans to participate in the election amount to collaboration with the junta.
He said: “Any political party that chooses to take part in the junta’s upcoming election is basically agreeing to collaborate with the terrorist regime. We, the resistance forces, urge everyone to refrain from any activities that would actively support the junta or its accomplices.”
He added that the political parties that have decided to take part in the elections are doing so for their own interests and that the public should not be fooled or manipulated by them, nor be taken in by their promises or incentives.
U Aung Kyaw Thu, who was formerly a National League for Democracy (NLD) member of the Mon State Parliament between 2015 and 2020, told Than Lwin Times that the people who set up the political parties contesting the junta’s election are no better than the junta themselves.
He said: “Some of them have set up political parties under the junta’s rule and are getting ready to join the upcoming elections. That makes them nothing more than accomplices of the junta trying to hold this election. And the voters who support and vote for them should also be seen as basically sharing the same mindset.”
Some of the political parties preparing to take part in the junta’s elections are offering voters incentives, welcoming defectors from other parties and giving positions to experienced politicians who have joined from other parties.
The junta has been doing various things to prepare for the election. These include a trial run in Mon State of the Myanmar electronic voting machines (MEVM) that the junta plans to use in the election and the issuing of National Identification Cards (NICs) to eligible voters who do not yet have one.
Amongst the parties due to contest the junta’s election. in Mon State are: The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the People's Pioneer Party (PPP), People's Party (PP), the Mon Unity Party (MUP), the National Unity Party (NUP) and the Women Party - Mon (WP-Mon).
