
A candidate from the United Democratic Party (UDP) has threatened to quit unless the party provides more information about its elusive and controversial chair.
Gannes Basnez, a prominent Kachin lawyer running in Waingmaw township for the party, told Myanmar Now he has requested detailed background information on Kyaw Myint.
The chair, also known as Michael Kyaw Myint Hua Hu, was jailed in Myanmar for reportedly helping the United Wa State Army to launder drug money via a company named Myanmar Kyone Yeom.
He was later fined $1.5m in Canada for insider trading.
“If he doesn’t give a legit explanation, I no longer want to be a part of the party. I’ll be an independent,” Basnez told Myanmar Now.
“As someone who’s only been working for the well-being of my own region, I don’t want my image to be damaged over something like this,” he added.
He made the decision after reading a profile of Kyaw Myint on the Burmese edition of Myanmar Now’s website, he said.
“I didn’t know anything about Myanmar Kyone Yeom or that there were so many ties to businesses. I hope he can provide some sort of an explanation for this,” said Basnez, who also serves as the party’s information officer for Kachin state.
Three different political parties asked him to run as MP for them, but he decided to go with UDP, also known as the Rose Party, as he liked the way the party was structured within Kachin.

“I’ll be quite frank about the Rose party’s offer, they wanted my image. There was no compensation whatsoever. I only asked for one thing, to not control me. If they told me what to do and what not to do, I told them I’d quit the next day,” he said.
UDP central executive committee secretary Kyaw Swar Htet Oo denied that any party members had requested information about the chair’s history.
Basnez is well-known in Kachin for giving legal aid to residents opposing Chinese industrial and agriculture projects.
The Rose Party expanded to Kachin state in 2018 with a strategy of paying regional recruiters between 30,000 and 50,000 kyat to find new members.
It will contest all 70 constituencies in Kachin state and expects to win about five of them, Basnez said.
The party is contesting a total of 1,131 constituencies nationwide, even more than the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party.