Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Rakhine (Arakan) Nationalities Development Party have denounced a Union Election Commission (UEC) ruling against an RNDP MP in the People’s Parliament as a “political conspiracy”, after the MP was dismissed from parliament.

Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) MP Htun Aung Khine had accused the RNDP’s Aung Kyaw Zan of ‘defaming’ the previous military government and the USDP during his election campaign.

However the RNDP state that the man responsible for the UEC decision, Tin Aye, is a former military and USDP member, and that USDP MPs were aware of the outcome before the UEC officially announced their decision.

On Saturday, 9 September, RNDP representatives released a statement following the dismissal of Aung Kyaw Zan.

In the statement they condemned the UEC’s ruling, which came out on the same day; 9 September. Aung Kyaw Zan is the MP for Arakan State’s Pauktaw township in the People’s Parliament.

Pe Than, the RNDP’s representative in the People’s Parliament from Arakan State’s Myebon township said; “We cannot accept this decision; disqualifying a parliament representative elected by the people by accusing him of exaggerated foul play, as a fair decision. We said in the statement this was a ‘political conspiracy.’”

Dr Aye Maung, the RNDP’s chairman and an MP in the National Parliament said the ruling has destroyed confidence between political forces that were obeying the constitution and the Union government;

“As to our understanding, retired general Tin Aye, [now UEC chairman] had already resigned from the parliament as well as from the USDP. However, some individuals in the parliament had already knew the result of who was going to win in the appeal since the day before the UEC announced its decision and it gave us a strange feeling, it made us confused about what to trust,” Dr Aye Maung told DVB.

The RNDP won 35 seats in the parliaments at last year’s 7 November elections. In 9 of the constituencies that were also contested by rival USDP candidates, the military party alleged foul play.

The initial ruling by the UEC saw victory for three of the RNDP members while six were disqualified. The six candidates defeated in the contest submitted their appeal and three of them were successful in their appeal.

The disqualified final thee submitted appeals again and two of them won except for Aung Kyaw Zan.