The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has filed nearly a dozen legal cases in Mandalay region’s Ngazun and Myittha townships for offenses allegedly committed during the general election held on November 8.
A total of 11 people, including a polling station official, the chair of the regional branch of the National League for Democracy (NLD), a village administrator and a village elder, and seven private individuals, are facing multiple charges, according to local USDP official Aung Ko.
Their alleged offenses include voting more than once, voting on behalf of others, wearing masks with NLD logos within 500 feet of the polling station, and publicly insulting former president Thein Sein, said Aung Ko, who is the chair of the Sat Pyar Kyin village branch of the USDP.
The reported people are from the villages of Sat Pyar Kyin, Than Gone, Nat Sein, Myauk Kyin, Lan Pan Kyin, Pauk Sein and Min Nay Gone, he added.
According to police station records, charges have been filed under the Election Law as well as section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law and articles 336 and 504 of the penal code.
“There were a lot of charges,” Ngazun police station deputy officer Maung Maung Yin told Myanmar Now, noting that some of the reported incidents took place during the campaign period.
One of the cases involves 45-year-old villager Tun Lwin, who is accused of violating article 504 of the penal code, which prohibits “intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace.”
The charge stems from claims that Tun Lwin “paraded his cow around his village with a USDP shirt on its horns,” according to Koko, the chair of the USDP’s Ngazun branch.
Another villager named Myo Swe is accused of playing a song criticizing Thein Sein, the former president and head of the USDP, during a campaign visit by USDP candidates to the village of Lat Pan Kyin. He has been charged under section 58(d) of the Election Law with “disturbing the voting or election.”
Meanwhile, Sar Kyin villager Khin Maung Swe faces up to three years in prison for allegedly violating section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law after he was accused of bashing a USDP candidate on social media.
Kyaw Soe Naing, who represents Ngazun township in the Mandalay region parliament, dismissed the USDP’s accusations as inaccurate and exaggerated.
“They’re just nitpicking. The cow incident is an exaggeration. It’s just a village tradition among the cowherds. And it’s not even clear it was a USDP shirt,” he said.
NLD member Myo Htet Kyaw, who was charged under article 57 of the Election Law with using money to influence voters, said that his actions were not motivated by politics.
“Our family always gives donations to the village. It has nothing to do with politics. We handed out oil and rice during the Covid-19 lockdown. And for this we’re being accused of illegal campaigning!” he said.
Maung Maung Yin of the Ngazun township police station said that the USDP’s charges had been accepted and were being processed.
