The Ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) formed a five-member commission to review whether the public support is declining or not, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, Vice-President-2 of the ruling NLD told the media after the CEC meeting held at Sibin guest house in Nay Pyi Taw on November 11.

“Today, the NLD has formed a review commission. According to the current review, the NLD got more than 40,000 votes in Myitkyina in the past. But now we got more than 10,000 votes in the by-election. According to the review, a decline in the number of ballots is linked to the low voter turnout. But did other parties get votes? We have data. Later, the review commission will release the exact data. The NLD won a seat in Mandalay Region even though the public support is said to be declining. We always won three seats. We won even Shan ethnic affairs seat. The fact that our ethnics no longer support the NLD is not true. All Shan people in Mandalay support the NLD,” he added.

“In an interview in Mandalay, I pointed out two points—(1) our candidates have weaknesses (2) our government has also weaknesses. The reason is region and state chief ministers can organize campaigns. This is our weak point. As a vice-president of the party, I am mainly responsible for the unexpected result in the by-election. We need to take lessons as we loss the constituencies where the NLD had ever won. We have a sufficient time to make preparations for the 2020 general election. The NLD was unable to organize voters to cast their ballots. Low voter turnout is an excuse. We are weak in doing door-to-door canvassing campaigns,” he added.

“According to the constitution, chief ministers can organize voters. But the Union ministers are not allowed to do so. The main reason is to meet the public on the ground. I assume our governments are weak in listening to the voices of the people in the villages. It is linked to the losses in some constituencies,” he continued.