Yangon USDP Boss Who Organized 2021 Political Violence to Stand in Election

The head of the Yangon office of the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), a junta loyalist who organized a series of often violent pro-military rallies alongside former Police Chief Khin Yi in the days immediately before and after the 2021 coup, will contest the Dec. 28 election in Yangon’s Hlegu Township.

Yangon Region USDP chapter chairman Khin Maung Soe, who served as electricity minister under Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government, will run in the same township in which he lost to a National League for Democracy (NLD) candidate in the 2020 election.

In Hlegu, he will face a crowded field including independents and candidates from parties such as the People’s Party led by U Ko Ko Gyi, the People’s Pioneer Party led by Daw Thet Thet Khine, the Shan and Nationalities Democratic Party led by Sai Aik Pao, and the Myanmar Farmers Development Party.