The National Union Election Commission (UEC) received a Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) complaint of voter fraud against the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in Namzang Township on 5 January, said SNLD representatives.
Sai Zaw Win, the SNLD candidate for a Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House) seat in Namzang Township, filed the complaint against U Thi Lon of the then ruling USDP in November.
He alleged that U Thi Lon won the Lower House seat in the 8 November general election through vote rigging. He also accused U Thi Lon of using funds from the parliamentary budget toward his own re-election campaign.
Sai Zaw Win told SHAN on 6 January: “He used 100 million kyats from the parliamentary budget for development projects in Mak Moong Mon Village and Koong Sar Village, where he built roads, bridges and set up electricity for the villagers. He told the villagers to vote for him because he had helped them.”
Sai Zaw Win is now required to appear before the UEC in Naypyidaw on 12 January. He claimed: “We have the all evidence for this case."
The complaint, which was reported by Eleven Myanmar on 23 November, was filed by SNLD candidates in Namzang, Mong Ping and Kutkai Townships due to a suspicious number of advanced votes that appeared in support of the USDP, allowing their candidates to take the lead.
Sai Zaw Win hopes the advanced votes will be declared invalid. He claimed that were it not for the alleged USDP violations of electoral law, he would have won the seat.
Four parties contested the election in Namzang Township. They were the National League for Democracy (NLD), the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) and the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). According the UEC, the USDP won three seats in Namzang Township and the SNLD won one.
Voting irregularities in Namzang Township were documented as early as Election Day, when both SNDP and SNLD candidates told SHAN that thousands of eligible voters had been disqualified, and others were allegedly allowed to vote despite discrepancies regarding their identities on voter lists.
On 12 November SHAN also reported that the NLD and SNLD had filed a joint complaint against Dr. Sai Mauk Kham, Burma’s current Vice President, citing accusations of vote rigging in his parliamentary re-election in Lashio Township.
By SAI AW / Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N)
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
