同盟军表态支持缅甸大选

南国游子 · 发表于 2015-7-24 15:32:52

据缅甸时报，同盟军发言人林先生在接受采访时表示，同盟军不会干扰缅甸大选，他呼吁缅军在大选期间停止在果敢的军事行动。

林先生说，缅军现在仍在进攻同盟军，如果希望选举能在果敢正常进行，缅军首先要停止军事行动，同盟军方面欢迎在果敢举行选举。

Kokang rebels support election plans
By Ye Mon | Friday, 24 July 2015

Ethnic Chinese rebels fighting in Kokang yesterday expressed support for plans for the border region of northern Shan State to hold parliamentary elections in November with the rest of Myanmar.

U Tun Myat Lin, spokesperson for the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), said their forces would not impede the election and he called on the Tatmadaw to halt their offensives over the election period.

“The Tatmadaw are still fighting our troops. I think the election depends on the Tatmadaw. If they make a ceasefire, the election will be held in Kokang region. We want the election,” he said.

The MNDAA was responding to Union Election Commission chair U Tin Aye, who told a Yangon press conference on July 22 that elections would be held in the region, which is currently under martial law, and that election staff would start work on electoral registers.

Under intense pressure from the Tatmadaw and mostly hemmed against the border with China, the MNDAA declared a unilateral ceasefire on June 11 which government forces ignored. However, much of the region – known for sugar cane, narcotics and gambling – is reported to be relatively stable after nearly six months of conflict.

The UN World Food Programme reported yesterday that about 70 percent of the area’s 90,000 residents had returned. It said an estimated 20,000 refugees were still sheltering in China.

U Tin Aye said he was concerned whether candidates would want to contest the elections, but added that the region needed MPs for its development.
However, a previous conflict in 2009 which forced the MNDAA out of local government and into exile did not prevent the election of pro-government candidates the next year.

U Tun Naing, chair of the Kokang Democracy and Unity Party, which failed to win a seat in 2010, said they would not contest the elections because too many people had fled. But he said they would field candidates in other areas of northern Shan State, including Lashio and Kunlong.

“We have no plan to contest in this region. I think the [ruling] USDP will contest the Kokang region. Other parties will not contest it,” he said.

Local government officials last month expressed their doubts that elections could be held in Kokang. But the decision to go ahead or not rests with the UEC.

U Kyaw Swe, the administrator of Kokang, told The Myanmar Times yesterday that they were preparing for the election with the UEC and that residents wanted the vote to go ahead. He said he believed that fighting would stop for the elections.

Kokang returns two MPs to the lower house, one to the upper house and four to the Shan State parliament.