The office of Speaker in the new Karen State Hluttaw (parliament) will go to a National League for Democracy (NLD) Member of Parliament (MP) after the party won the majority of seats in the Hluttaw.
The new Karen Hluttaw, will convene on 8 February and it will be the second Karen Hluttaw.
Nan Khin Htwe, the chairperson of the NLD’s Karen State branch and a Karen State Hluttaw MP spoke to KIC.
She said: “Both the Speakers of the Pyithu Hluttaw [National Lower House] and Amyotha Hluttaw [National Upper House] are from the NLD so it will be the same for the State [Hluttaw]. The NLD will select the Speaker. The [Karen State] Hluttaw will start on the 8th so you will find out on that day.”
The new Karen State Hluttaw will consist of 22 MPs. Of those 14 MPs will be from seven townships in the state and there will also be one Mon, one Bamar and one Pa’O ethnic affairs minister. There will also be five MPs appointed from the military.
Of the non-military, elected MPs, 13 are from the NLD, three are from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and one is from the Karen People’s Party (KPP).
KPP MP Saw J A Win Myint from Thandaung Gyi Township Constituency 2 told KIC: “We haven’t discussed with the NLD about the State Hluttaw and the forming of the [Karen State] government, but all of the MPs are from our state. I will work with everyone for the benefit of the state.”
In the first Karen Hluttaw, which convened from 2010 until 29 January 2016 Saw Aung Kyaw Min from Kyainseikgyi Township Constituency 1 served as Speaker and Mann Hla Myaing from Kawkareik Township Constituency 1 served as Deputy Speaker. Both were from the USDP, which held the majority of the seats in the first Karen Hluttaw.
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
