Myanmar election official escapes ambush near Naypyitaw; several others dead

An ambush targeting a senior junta election official travelling from Naypyitaw to Magway Region left several people dead on Tuesday, according to police reports and resistance sources. The attack occurred at around 1:30pm near Shwepan, a village about 50 miles northwest of Naypyitaw, an intercepted police message seen by Myanmar Now indicated. The target was Aung Lwin Oo, a member of the regime-controlled Union Election Commission (UEC), who was on his way to Magway’s Myothit Township ahead of a second round of polling set to take place this coming Sunday. Aung Lwin Oo is the third highest-ranking official in the UEC, which was reorganised by the regime in July of last year. He is the official chiefly responsible for supervising the election in Magway. He escaped, but his personal assistant, Aung Kyaw Thu, and the chief of police for Myothit Township, Police Major Tun Lin Aung, were killed, along with a police sub-inspector and a female police officer. Four other police officers were injured, one critically. Battalion 93 of the National Unity Government’s People’s Defence Force, also known as the Naypyitaw PDF, claimed responsibility for the attack. It said the number of dead could be as high as seven. According to Naypyitaw PDF commander Bo Aung Din, the group acted on intelligence it had received about the official’s movements. “We opened fire on them, and they retreated about 300 meters before returning fire. We seized some weapons from the vehicles that we hit. One was overturned and lying on its back, pinning down those who had been killed,” he said. He added that the PDF forces withdrew as junta reinforcements arrived after 30 minutes of fighting. Bo Aung Din, a 34-year-old former businessman from Natmauk, also posted a two-minute video of the clash on Facebook, showing resistance forces firing from high ground while a car lay upside down on the road. A local resident reported hearing heavy gunfire that lasted more than half an hour. The junta has since tightened security and burned back forest cover near the site of the ambush, he added. A screenshot from a video posted online shows the site of an attack on a convoy led by a senior election official in Magway Region’s Myothit Township on January 6 (Photo: Supplied) The attack occurred as the regime prepared for the second phase of its three-phase election in a total of 100 townships across the country, including Myothit and 10 other townships in Magway Region. Widely condemned as a sham, the election began with a first phase on December 28, followed by second and third phases scheduled for January 11 and January 25. Those later rounds are set to take place largely in areas contested by junta forces and resistance groups. According to an election official who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity, the incident has caused significant alarm at the UEC office in Naypyitaw. “There is a lot of panic at the office. There is an internal investigation into how the travel and security details were leaked. They are questioning the office staff who were aware of this trip,” the official said on Wednesday. High-ranking officials are required to obtain permission and request security services from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services and the Ministry of Home Affairs before leaving Naypyitaw, and also have to submit a detailed itinerary of their travel routes, according to a personal assistant to a junta deputy minister. On the same day as the attack, a meeting of the Central Committee for Election Security Supervision was held in Naypyitaw. During the meeting, the Minister of Home Affairs, Lt-Gen Tun Tun Naung, urged officials to ensure there are no security breaches and to reinforce existing security plans. The election, generally regarded as part of an effort to solidify military control under a civilian guise, has faced strong opposition from resistance forces. “We don’t accept it, and neither do the citizens. This attack was a way of obstructing this election,” said Bo Aung Din of the Naypyitaw PDF.

Myanmar election official escapes ambush near Naypyitaw; several others dead

The incident comes ahead of the second phase of the regime’s carefully stage-managed election, set to take place next Sunday

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