RNDP Submits 45 Candidates to Election Commission

Sittwe: The Rakhine National Development Party, the largest Arakanese political party, submitted a list of 45 candidates to the Election Commission to run in elections for three parliamentary bodies in the upcoming election scheduled for 7 November.

President Dr. Aye Maung said, "Our party submitted our candidate list to the Election Commission during 27 to 30 August. We had planned to submit 65 candidates from our party but we were able to submit only 45 candidates from our party due to financial crisis and insufficient time."

Among the 45 candidates, 43 will run in Arakan State for three places in parliament - the Lower House, Upper House, and state and regional parliament - and two candidates will run in Rangoon and Irrawaddy Divisions.

The RNDP will not be running for any parliamentary seats in Maungdaw Township on the western border, nor for three parliamentary seats in Ann, where the Western Command is stationed.

"We did not have enough time to organize people from some townships, especially Maungdaw, Ann, and Man Aung. So we neglected some parliamentary seats from those townships," Dr. Aye said.

Dr. Aye Maung, who will himself run in Sittwe for a seat in the Upper House of the national parliament, believes his party will win a majority of seats in Arakan State in the election.

"It is the only nationalist party of Arakan to carry out our national interests and the people of Arakan understand which party represents the people of Arakan. Our candidates are expected to be voted by our people in the election," he added.

Meanwhile, the Union Solidarity Development Party, the proxy party of the military government, submitted candidates for all parliamentary seats throughout Arakan State. The USDP selected many educated Arakanese and retired army officials from Arakan as candidates to run in the state.

According to a source, the other major political parties, including the National Unity Party, the successor of the Burmese Socialist Programme Party, and the Rakhine National Force Party (Myanmar) also submitted several candidates who are Arakanese nationals to the Election Commission on 30 August.

According to the recent constitution approved by the military government in 2008, there are a total of 1,187 seats in all the parliamentary bodies, including 330 seats in the People's Parliament, or Lower House, 168 in the Nationalities Parliament, or Upper House, and 689 in the state and regional parliaments.


Narinjara