Controversial Rakhine politician to run in regime elections
The regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) announced on Sept. 12 that it has permitted Aye Maung, an Arakan State-based former lawmaker who has served in both houses of parliament, to contest the regime general elections scheduled to begin on Dec. 28. This followed a pardon for Aye Maung granted for his criminal incitement and treason convictions by regime leader Min Aung Hlaing on Sept. 11.
“Aye Maung has been in the regime’s camp since his release from the prison [after the coup],” Nay Kyaw Soe, the chairperson of the All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress (AASYC), told DVB. Aye Maung was released from prison in a regime amnesty on Feb. 12, 2021. He was sentenced to 20 years on March 19, 2019, after being convicted of treason for a speech he gave in Arakan’s Rathedaung Township on Jan. 15, 2018.
The UEC announced on Sept. 14 that the elections will not be held in Arakan’s Ramree, Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung, Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Kyauktaw, Minbya, Myebon, and Mrauk-U townships. Local media reported that Aye Maung’s Arakan Front Party (AFP) will contest in 17 townships of Arakan. Fourteen are under Arakan Army (AA) control. The regime controls the state capital Sittwe, Kyaukphyu, and Manaung.
UEC states polls will not take place in 56 townships
Regime media reported that the UEC announced on Sunday that it will not hold its general elections in a total of 56 out of Burma’s 330 townships. The first phase of the elections is scheduled to be held in 102 townships on Dec. 28. This means polls will follow in only 172 of the eligible 228 townships nationwide at unspecified dates in January 2026.
A resident in Karenni State told DVB that regime officials have begun compiling voter lists in the state capital Loikaw. Karenni has seven total townships but the UEC states that elections will not be held in Shadaw, Mese and Hpasawng. These three towns were seized by Karenni resistance forces after it launched an offensive against the regime on Nov. 11, 2023. The regime controls Loikaw, Bawlakhe, Demoso, Hpruso.
A total of 57 political parties have registered with the UEC but only six will contest nationally, including the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which ruled the country from 2011-2016 until it was defeated in back-to-back landslide election victories by the National League for Democracy (NLD) in 2015 and 2020. Four parties were dissolved by the UEC on Sept. 9 for not meeting its criteria.
A ‘ray of hope’ for long-term Myanmar refugees in Thailand
Inside a small bamboo hut in a mountainous area of northwestern Thailand along the Myanmar border, Meh Ya works at her Singer sewing machine. The 47-year-old mother of three has lived and raised her children in this refugee camp outside of Mae Hong Son since 2001.
Sewing clothes for a living allows her to earn an income in a remote area where there’s no work opportunities. Facing a complete withdrawal of U.S. aid to the nine refugee camps along the Myanmar border on July 31, 107,000 refugees like her family in Thailand can no longer rely on food aid or healthcare in the camp she’s called home for the last 25 years.
“Now, life has become suffocating. I’m just afraid of going hungry or sick,” Mae Ya told DVB. She’s unable to return to her hometown of Moebye, across the border in Burma’s southern Shan State, due to the intensifying conflict between regime and resistance forces since the uprising to the 2021 military coup began. Read more
News by Region
ARAKAN—Residents of Maungdaw Township told DVB that they welcomed the reopening of the Jarma Central Mosque by the AA on Friday. The historic mosque had been shut down since inter-communal conflict broke out in 2012. Maungdaw, located in northern Arakan, was seized by the AA on Dec. 8.
“Hundreds of mosques have been shut down ever since the conflict in 2012 and no new mosques have been allowed to be built,” an Islamic religious leader in Mrauk-U told DVB on the condition of anonymity. The military had briefly allowed the mosque to reopen in April 2024, according to residents.
KAREN—Aid workers in Myawaddy Township told DVB that 4,000 civilians, who were forced to flee their homes and are living in a displacement camp along the Thaungyin (Moei) River, are in urgent need of food and medicine. Myawaddy is located 81 miles (130 km) east of the state capital Hpa-An.
Aid worker Zaw Tun told DVB that the 4,000 civilians have been staying at an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp along the river after fleeing a regime counteroffensive in Thingan Nyinaung village, which led to recapture of the Kawkareik–Myawaddy stretch of the Asia Highway from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), on Sept. 6. Read more
MANDALAY—Sources told DVB that one nightclub owner, its two managers, and one disc jockey from Yangon, are facing charges under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code for “criminal incitement.” The four are accused of playing Buddhist chants at a nightclub in Maharaungmyay Township on July 31.
DJ Khin Htwe Htwe Mon, who uses the stage name Violet, was arrested by police at her home in Yangon’s Thingangyun Township on Sept. 11 after the nightclub was shut down by regime authorities. She had apologized to the State Sangha Committee of Yangon Region in person before her arrest.
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