Senior General expresses confidence in strong, free and fair upcoming election
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Htet Nadi (NP News) - Oct 18
Pro Tem President Senior General Min Aung Hlaing expressed his confidence that the upcoming elections will be strong, free and fair in his speech at the 10th anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) held on October 15 at the Myanmar International Convention Centre (MICC-I) in Naypyidaw.
The Senior General announced in front of ethnic armed groups and the international diplomatic community that a multi-party general election will be held on December 28 in accordance with the 2008 Constitution, and that power will be transferred to the government that emerges from the election in accordance with democratic standards.
He also urged relevant ethnic armed groups to cooperate in increasing security and addressing potential insecure situations during election periods.
“To democratically implement the wishes and desires of ethnic people, the Hluttaw, the political platform, must be convened by all ethnic groups. Only then will ethnic groups’ desires be collectively implemented. The FPTP (First Past the Post) system will be used for the Pyithu Hluttaw, and the MMP (Mixed Member Proportional) system will be used for the remaining Amyotha Hluttaw and Region/State Hluttaws. Therefore, small ethnic minority parties will also be able to obtain representative seats,” he said emphasizing that ethnic minorities will also be represented in the upcoming elections.
The election will be held in three rounds, with 102 townships in the first round, 100 townships in the second part, and the remaining townships in the third. Then, the by-elections will be held in the remaining townships excluded from the 2025 election, led by the next government and the Union Election Commission, said Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
The Senior General also stated that the multi-party democratic general election will be held on December 28, and a total of 57 political parties, including six political parties competing nationwide and 51 political parties competing in states and regions, with more than 5,000 candidates.
“In general, after the UEC has examined the candidates' list, there may be some changes due to issues such as educational qualifications and so on. In any case, I would like to say that our election will be a fairly strong one,” the Senior General said.
The Senior General added that voter frauds and major problems with advance voting had occurred in all three previous elections, and that it was arranged to use the Myanmar Electronic Voting Machine in this election to prevent such incidents.
“Therefore, in order to prevent these things from happening, we have thoroughly tested the Myanmar electronic voting machines multiple times before proceeding. We went ahead with it regardless of the cost involved. Yesterday, a demonstration was shown to some relevant individuals. There is absolutely no reason for electoral fraud to occur. None at all. We have also put in place various restrictions regarding advance voting. Therefore, I believe this election will be a successful one, and that it will be a free and fair election,” the Senior General said.