Junta-appointed Shan State Chief Minister Aung Aung and Triangle Region Command Chief Major-General Soe Hlaing on Thursday visited Panghsang (also known as Pangkham), the capital of Wa State, which is controlled by the United Wa State Army. The visit comes as the junta ramps up preparations for elections at the end of the year in a bid to legitimize its rule.
The chief minister conveyed “cordial greetings” from the junta, newly rebranded as the State Security and Peace Commission, to the UWSA leadership, which is a signatory to a ceasefire with the military regime. He promised support for education and healthcare development in Panghsang as well as “preparations for the elections scheduled for December”, according to the WeChat page of the Voice of Wa State.
The meeting was chaired by UWSA deputy chief Zhao Guoan, who welcomed the delegation on behalf of Chairman Bao Youxiang and the Wa State Government.
In previous elections, the local Wa Democratic Party usually won. The party is an ally of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
In towns adjacent to the Wa region that were previously controlled by the regime but have been controlled by the MNDAA since Operation 1027—such as Kunlong, Chinshwehaw and Laukkai—the USDP has been electorally dominant.
Other parties including the National League for Democracy, Shan and Nationalities Democratic Party, and the United Democratic Party also operate in the region, but they enjoy less support than the USDP.
The most powerful ethnic armed group in Myanmar, the UWSA has upheld a ceasefire with the previous regime for more than three decades, but refused to sign the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.
The UWSA is headquartered in Panghsang, which is made up of Mongmao, Monglin and Mongpauk districts and Pangkham special township. The UWSA collectively refers to these areas—which cover around 1,500 square km—as northern Wa State. The military-drafted 2008 Constitution officially uses the name Wa Self-Administered Zone for what the UWSA calls Wa State.
The UWSA expanded to Monghsat District on the Thai border in the 1990s with the agreement of the State Law and Order Restoration Council, as the military junta of that era was known. That area is referred to as southern Wa State, and designated by the UWSA as Military Region 171. The 2008 Constitution does not recognize the area as part of the official Wa Self-Administered Zone, however.
The UWSA wants its northern and southern states to be combined and recognized officially as Wa State, and has been demanding official statehood. In its statement, it calls itself the Wa State Government. The regime has agreed in principle to grant statehood to the UWSA-controlled areas.
The UWSA is also the chair of the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Council—a coalition of ethnic armed groups that opted out of signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the previous government.
Despite its official declaration of a “neutral stance” in the fight between its allied ethnic armed organizations and the regime in anti-regime Operation 1027—which saw the regime lose control over much of northern Shan State—the UWSA is widely believed to have secretly backed its allies.
The junta delegation and UWSA government also discussed development of Burmese-language education in Wa State, where locals use Chinese yuan as the currency and speak Mandarin or Chinese dialects.
A resident of Hopang town controlled by the UWSA told The Irrawaddy he had not heard about any preparations for the junta’s planned December election taking place there.
The junta’s election body has provided training on using electronic voting machines in towns it controls in eastern, southern and northern Shan State. The military’s proxy USDP enjoys popular support in southern Shan State thanks to the Myanmar military’s ties with aligned local militias. Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has often visited Taunggyi, Kengtung and Tachilek in southern and eastern Shan State, whereas the regime has ceded large swathes of territory in northern Shan State.
During his visit to Kengtung in May, Min Aung Hlaing told personnel of the local battalions and their families to choose candidates “who can truly serve the interests of the nation”—interpreted as a call to support the USDP, which is led by ex-generals.
During the same trip, Min Aung Hlaing met with a National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) delegation at the Triangle Region Command, and discussed “peace and stability” and regional development.
A junta delegation led by Aung Aung and Major General Soe Hlaing also visited Mongla, an area controlled by the NDAA, on Thursday and Friday, discussing “cooperation on development” in key areas such as education, healthcare, transportation and public welfare, according to the NDAA’s WeChat account.
The regime is planning to hold elections in 267 out of 330 townships across Myanmar, and has been promulgating and amending relevant laws recently. Official campaigning is expected to start in late September.
The junta’s talks with the UWSA and NDAA have prompted speculation about possible talks between the regime and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), which seized several towns in northern Shan State during Operation 1027, but was later forced to halt its offensive and retreat from the northern Shan State capital of Lashio in April under Chinese pressure. However, elections are unlikely in MNDAA-controlled territory.
The results of previous general elections in 2010, 2015 and 2020 suggest the USDP enjoys strong support in Shan State’s 55 townships.
The junta’s National Defense and Security Council on July 31 declared martial law in over 60 townships across Myanmar including towns in Kokang and Mongla, as it steps up efforts to restore stability ahead of the December polls. Hopang was the only town in the Wa Self-Administered Zone included in the martial law list. However, despite the town being part of the Wa Self-Administered Zone, it has been controlled by the Myanmar military for decades. No towns under the de facto control of the UWSA are included in the list.
