U Aung Myint, a member of the Union Election Commission, recently announced that a by-election will take place in Kyethi and Mong Hsu townships in southern Shan State next January.
The upcoming by-election has to be held in constituencies left out of the previous election and for vacant seats left by representatives that have been appointed as cabinet members.
Polling during the 2015 General Election was cancelled after the Burma Army launched a series of offensives against ceasefire group Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army in Mong Hsu, Kyethi, and Tangyan townships.
More than 40,000 voters from Kyethi Township; over 50,000 voters from Mong Hsu Township; and voters from 8 village-tracts in Tangyan Township lost their right to vote in the election due to the fighting.
Forty-two village-tracts in Hopang Township in Shan State’s Wa Self-Administered Division controlled by United Wa State Army (UWSA) were also excluded for different reasons. As were townships, Pangkham, Pang Wai, Nah Parn and Mong Ma, in Special Region 2, also controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), and Mongla, part of Special Region 4 controlled by New Democratic Alliance Army – Eastern Shan State.
Reporting by Sai Aung Saing for SHAN
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited by BNI staff
