Ko Ko Gyi, the founder and chairperson of the People’s Party, announced that he will run as a candidate in Yangon’s Lanmadaw Township for the Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, in the regime elections scheduled to begin on Dec. 28. The Union Election Commission (UEC) published a list of candidates eligible to contest the elections, including Ko Ko Gyi’s name, on Oct. 19.
Ko Ko Gyi is a former leader of the 88 Generation Students. He told DVB that his People’s Party will field 512 candidates nationwide. Founded in 2018, the People’s Party is one of six registered with the UEC to run a national campaign. Ko Ko Gyi ran as a candidate in Yangon’s South Okkalapa Township in 2020, but lost with only 2.74 percent of the vote. His People’s Party didn’t win any seats in parliament.
The 2020 election results were overturned by the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. The National League for Democracy (NLD) government, which was re-elected with an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament, was ousted and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were jailed.
Ko Ko Gyi had submitted his name to the NLD to run in the 2015 elections, which it won in a landslide victory and formed its government under Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership the following year, but he was excluded from its list of candidates. Ko Ko Gyi has neither condemned the 2021 coup nor the detention of Myanmar’s democratically-elected leaders.
