USDA to Organize Referendum, Election

By WAI MOE

February 11, 2008, (Irrawaddy): The Union Solitary and Development Association (USDA) will organize the Burmese referendum on the constitution in May and the 2010 general election, including the selection of some candidates across the country, say USDA sources.

Sources close to the USDA told The Irrawaddy on Monday that USDA members at the township and district levels will form local commissions to oversee the referendum voting and general election process.

The USDA will also recruit respected local people to serve on the referendum and election commissions, said a source who requested anonymity.

Later, the USDA will play a role in the selection of what appears to be state-backed candidates in the general election, he said.

“Some people will be selected to serve as commissioners,” said one USDA member. “Some will be selected to be candidates in the 2010 election.”

“The association is now looking for well-educated, respected, wealthy people to be candidates in the election,” he said.

According to Khin Maung Gyi, the secretary general of the National Unity Party (NUP), the pro-junta USDA will transform itself into a political party in time to contest the 2010 elections.

The NUP secretary general told DPA news agency that he believed the 2010 elections would be free and fair, and could lead to an amnesty and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Sources said most USDA members were surprised when the junta announced on Saturday that general dates had been set for the referendum on the junta-backed constitution and general election.

Htay Aung, a Burmese researcher in Thailand, said the regime originally created the USDA to serve eventually as a junta-backed political party. In addition, he said, the USDA has been a source for junta-backed thugs who were used most recently to suppress the pro-democracy uprising in 2007.

“The military junta will use the USDA as a political tool during the referendum and the election,” said Htay Aung. “In November 2005, U Htay Oo, the secretary-general of the USDA, publicly said that if it is necessary, the association will be turned into a political party.”

Senior USDA members recently met with grassroots members, in what may have been preparations for the referendum and election, said the researcher.

According to official documents, the USDA, formed in 1993, has 24 million members or almost half of the population of Burma.

“The military regime is confident it can win the referendum and election,” said Htay Aung. “The regime thinks votes by USDA members alone can keep the generals in power.”

According to The New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, the USDA’s Htay Oo and Brig-Gen Kyaw Swe, the commander of the armed forces’ southwest command, recently met with local members in Bassein as well as in Ngapudaw and Labutta in Irrawaddy Division.

Htay Oo also attended a USDA meeting on youth affairs in Naypyidaw on February 10.

In what is seen as a privileged perk for USDA members, the authorities recently gave the green light for state-approved cell phone licenses to be purchased by USDA members. The USDA also has been active in local state water supply projects and the registration process for identity cards across the country, work that is seen as enhancing its grassroots image.

USDA members held 633 seats, or 58 percent, at the National Convention which was convened in 1993 to prepare guidelines for the new constitution. The guidelines were finally approved in 2007.

Opposition group observers say that most USDA members are civil servants who were recruited by harassment and intimidation. It also includes teachers, students, business people and political activists.

Many Burmese view the USDA as principally an instrument of the regime that carries out violent acts against opposition activists and civilians. The group has paramilitary members who perform surveillance and search for dissidents in hiding.

USDA members played a key role in the bloody crackdowns during the 2007 uprising and in a deadly attack on Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade in 2003, in which about 100 people were killed.

Source: The Irrawaddy News - www.irrawaddy.org