CNI News
26 December 2025
U Zaw Wai Htet, Secretary of the People’s Pioneer Party (PPP) for the Ayeyarwady Region, told CNI News that the party is facing difficulties and constraints in its organizing efforts due to a lack of local familiarity in the region.
"The main difficulty is that in the 2020 General Election, the PPP was only able to contest in 8 townships within the Ayeyarwady Region. Now, we will be contesting in 26 townships," he said. "As a party, we are still relatively young and are considered a new party within Ayeyarwady. Therefore, organizing is difficult for us. Since we lack local familiarity, we face various challenges and pressures in our attempts to organize."
On August 20, the Union Election Commission (UEC) announced that Part (1) of the Multi-party Democracy General Election, scheduled for December 28, 2025, will be held in 102 townships. Eight townships in the Ayeyarwady Region—Kyonpyaw, Pathein, Maubin, Myaungmya, Kyangin, Myanaung, Labutta, and Hinthada—are included in this first phase.
Members of the PPP party in Ayeyarwady Region.
Strict Regulations and Administrative Hurdles U Zaw Wai Htet further explained that the primary challenge for the PPP is the strict regulations imposed by the UEC, which make operations difficult.
"We focus primarily on online outreach. However, in the rural areas of Ayeyarwady, you have to go in person. To do that, we have to obtain recommendations from homeowners and ward administrators to submit to the respective election commissions. This means we essentially have to visit a village twice," he explained.
"First, we have to find a house where we can hold a campaign speech. Once we find a house, we have to get the ward administrator's recommendation and the homeowner’s consent form and submit them to the commission. Only after submitting to the commission can we go back down to the village. These are the kinds of difficulties we face. The voters themselves are accepting; they cooperate with us enthusiastically. The main issue is just the UEC's strict regulations, which make it a bit difficult for our party to operate."
Members of the PPP party in Ayeyarwady Region.
According to the schedule:
Part (1) of the election will be held on December 28, 2025.
Part (2) will be held on January 11, 2026.
Part (3) is slated for the last week of January 2026.
The UEC also announced that elections will not be held in certain areas due to security or logistical reasons. In Part (1), elections would be skipped in the Baw Mi and Ma Gyee Zin village tracts of Pathein Township. Similarly, in Part (2), elections will not take place in the Kyun Lyar Gyi and Thit Phyu village tracts of Thabaung Township.
