The Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) will win next April’s by-elections in Shan State, according to party chairman Sai Ai Pao.

“We will contest the two vacant seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw [Lower House of Parliament] and the five seats in the regional parliament,” said Sai Ai Pao, the former Shan State minister of forestry and mining. “We are contesting them because we believe we will win. If not, we would not compete.”

The SNDP chairman called for next year’s polls to be free and fair, adding that armed groups should not interfere in the process. He also called for advanced voting to be transparent.

A total of 18 vacant seats will be up for grabs in both Union and regional parliaments when by-elections are held on April 1 next year, according to an announcement from the Union Election Commission (UEC) on October 11.

The SNDP won only one seat in the 2015 general election, a far cry from the 57 seats it won in the 2010 election (21 seats in the upper and lower houses; 36 seats at state level).

The party was formed in 2010 by a group mostly made up of former members of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) at a time when several of that party’s leaders were serving lengthy prison sentences, including SNLD Chairman Khun Htun Oo and General-Secretary Sai Nyunt Lwin.

Polls were cancelled in many parts of Shan State during the general election in 2015 due to ongoing clashes between Burmese government forces and the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA). Constituencies where polling was postponed include Kehsi and Monghsu townships in central Shan State, and Kengtung Township in eastern Shan State.

Polling was also cancelled in areas under the control of the United Wa State Army, such as Pangsang, Narpan, Pangwai and Mongmaw; as well as Mongla Township, which is the base of the Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA). The UEC maintains that those areas are still too volatile for by-elections to take place next year.

By Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)