Speaker of the Chin State parliament Zo Bwi—who is also the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) party chair for the state—has announced that he won’t run in Burma’s general election on November 8.
According to Zo Bwi, he had planned to run for election in Hakha Township for the state parliament, but the NLD selected him to run for a seat in the Union Parliament’s Lower House. He said that he decided against it in order to help his party focus on developing a winning campaign strategy in the state.
“I proposed running for a seat in the state parliament, but party’s headquarters selected me to contest for a seat in the People’s Parliament,” he told Khonumthung News. “I am the chairperson of the NLD party in Chin State. I need to lead the party to win the coming election, so I decided to not run for election.”
Zo Bwi added that the move was his own decision.
Sonny Thang Cung, Chin State’s current attorney general, will instead run as the NLD candidate for the Lower House seat representing Hakha Township.
According to Chin State’s NLD chapter, the party quarters made changes to the electoral plans of 12 candidates in Chin State on August 1, citing it as providing a greater chance of victory.