Opposition parties discuss strategy ahead of elections

Opposition parties discuss strategy ahead of elections
Sai Nyunt Lwin, General Secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD)

Myanmar’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) may withdraw from contesting parliamentary seats that overlap with those of its allies in the general election, an ethnic lawmaker said Monday, days after the party announced its intention to take part in the November polls reported RFA on 13 July.
NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi said over the weekend that her party would contest the Nov. 8 elections and planned to compete in as many constituencies as possible.
But Sai Nyunt Lwin, a member of parliament with the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the NLD and ethnic parties from the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP) were in discussions to “avoid overlapping constituencies” during the vote.
The CRPP was formed in 1998 by the NLD, along with representatives from parties including the SNLD, Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), Mon Democracy Party and Zomi National Congress, after Myanmar’s then-ruling military junta refused to recognize a sweeping victory by the opposition in the country’s 1990 general election.
Sai Nyunt Lwin said the NLD and the SNLD were set to hold talks on which constituencies the two parties would contest.