A Union Election Commission tribunal has ruled to remove a USDP regional lawmaker from his seat after finding him guilty of cheating during his November 2018 by-election campaign.
Nay Myo Aung was accused after his victory of using a money lending business to “bribe” voters in Yangon’s Seikkan township, an allegation that was first revealed by Myanmar Now.
The runner up in last year’s race, NLD candidate Than Htike Aung, filed the original lawsuit against the lawmaker and will now automatically take over his seat.
Nay Myo Aung was also found guilty of campaigning for votes in the name of religion, setting up his party office on government owned land, and fabricating election expenses, tribunal chairman Myint Naing told Myanmar Now.
“We decided based on the documents and evidence. We made a moral decision,” he said.
“As our party is a people party, we will try the best for the people,” Than Htike Aung said after the tribunal’s decision.
The USDP candidate won the constituency with 515 votes, 159 more than his NLD opponent. He has 15 days to appeal the decision but has not indicated whether or not he plans to.
The USDP was founded by the military as a social welfare organisation and registered as a political party to compete in the 2010 general elections, which was widely dismissed as a sham.
The party has for years been dogged by allegations that many of the assets it uses are government property, which would violate the 2010 political parties registration law.
Starting in January, the tribunal questioned witnesses from both the NLD and the USDP at its offices in Naypyitaw. Among those witnesses was deputy transport and communications minister Kyaw Myo, who told the investigators that the lawmaker’s USDP party office had been illegally built on land owned by his ministry.
Phyo Thiha Cho, the Myanmar Now reporter who broke the story about the allegations against Nay Myo Aung, was also questioned as a witness. His article was submitted as evidence to the tribunal by the plaintiff.
The report found that a number of constituents who had borrowed money with help from Nay Myo Aung during the campign period had not been asked to make any repayments.
Nay Myo Aung has also been charged under section 58(a), an anti-bribery clause of the election law, for his involvement in money lending ahead of the vote.
If found guilty he could be sentenced to up to a year in prison, handed a 100,000 kyat fine, or both.
