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YANGON: A newly elected MP for Myanmar’s ruling party was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in the northern state of Shan and the party on Sunday (November 22) called for a swift investigation, denouncing political violence in the wake of the elections this month.
Htike Zaw was shot in the tent he kept at his home in Kyaukme city on Saturday, party spokesman Myo Nyunt said.
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The dead man had won a seat in the November 8 general elections that brought a landslide victory for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD).
“He went out to sell when a customer came, and that customer shot him,” Myo Nyunt told Reuters by phone, adding that the party had asked authorities to investigate as soon as possible.
“We denounce violence, especially violence related to politics that is bad for the future,” he said.
Local police did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
The election was only the second held in Myanmar since the end of half a century of military and military-backed rule in 2011, and Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD won a resounding victory.
The party won fewer seats than other parties in some ethnic areas, including Shan State, a region ravaged by conflict with insurgents and large-scale drug production. Voting in some electoral districts of the state was canceled before the elections, and authorities cited violence.
The army-backed Union, Solidarity and Development Party has questioned the election result, citing irregularities from poor quality ballot boxes to advanced voting problems, and demanded a new execution.
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The NLD has requested evidence of wrongdoing.
The outcome in the Htike Zaw constituency, a seat previously held by an ethnic Shan party but won by the NLD in November, is among those in dispute, Myo Nyunt said, without elaborating.
The home of an electoral commission official in Kyaukme was attacked earlier this month.
