People’s Pioneer Party founder Thet Thet Khine disqualified by Union Election Commission

The regime Union Election Commission (UEC) told pro-regime media on Saturday that the founder and chairperson of the People’s Pioneer Party (PPP) Thet Thet Khine is disqualified from running for a seat in the Amyotha Hluttaw, or the upper house of parliament, in the upcoming regime elections scheduled to begin on Dec. 28. 

The UEC cited Section 8(d) of the Amyotha Hluttaw Election Law for the disqualification in its written response that surfaced on social media on Oct. 25. The law states that a candidate must be free from any improper financial obligations to the state or to any private individual.

Thet Thet Khine is rumored to owe an unspecified amount in loans to KBZ Bank, as well as a private bank. The jewelry magnate served as the regime Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement from 2021-23, and the Minister for Hotels and Tourism from 2023 until January 2025. 

Thet Thet Khine also served as a National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker in the Pyithu Hluttaw, or the lower house of parliament, from 2016-2021. She left the NLD after being suspended from the party for criticizing State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in September 2018. 

She then founded the PPP in 2019 and ran in the 2020 general elections, but her party won no seats in parliament. The NLD won a landslide victory in 2020, but was ousted in a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021 with Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint placed under arrest. They’ve been held by the regime, which seized power during the coup, incommunicado ever since.

Thet Thet Khine stated on Oct. 9 that Myanmar’s jailed leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint, were not considered political prisoners since they were convicted on corruption charges. 

Eighty-six political party candidates were disqualified by the UEC on Oct. 25.

Ko Ko Gyi, the founder and chairperson of the People’s Party, told pro-regime media on Oct. 25 that an unspecified number of People’s Party candidates were among those disqualified. 

Ko Ko Gyi was accepted by the UEC as the People’s Party candidate for Yangon’s Lanmadaw Township in the Pyithu Hluttaw.

A total of 4,963 individuals registered for the three-phase polls scheduled to begin in December and continue into January 2026, according to the UEC. 

Fifty-seven political parties registered with the UEC and six of them, including the USDP, the NUP, the PPP, and the People’s Party will contest nationwide. 

The UEC will conduct the regime scheduled elections in 274 out of Myanmar’s total 330 townships.