Former Arakan State chief minister, cabinet colleague charged with electoral law violations

By DMG 03 Mar 2022

DMG Newsroom
3 March 2022, Sittwe

Myanmar’s military regime on Thursday charged detained former Arakan State Chief Minister U Nyi Pu and his subordinate municipal minister, U Min Aung, under the Penal Code for alleged violations of election law, according to their lawyers. 

At a court hearing inside Sittwe Prison on March 3, the two deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) ministers were charged under Sections 109 and 130(a) of the Penal Code for allegedly aiding and abetting fraud in Myanmar’s 2020 general election. 

“They were accused of violating electoral laws. The next court hearing has been scheduled for March 10, during which prosecution witnesses will testify,” said a lawyer involved in the case. 

Initially, the two men were only charged under Section 130(a) of the Penal Code. Vice chairman U Thurein Htut of the junta-appointed Arakan State election body subsequently filed an additional legal complaint under Section 109. 

U Nyi Pu’s daughter Ma Kyi Kyi Oo told DMG: “I don’t know what happened at today’s court hearing. I want to meet my father, and ask about his health.” 

U Nyi Pu and four other detained NLD ministers for the deposed Arakan State government were given prison terms on corruption charges in January. 

The former Arakan State chief minister, finance minister U Kyaw Aye Thein, and transport minister U Aung Kyaw Zan were sentenced to nine years in prison. U Min Aung was handed seven years and agriculture minister U Kyaw Lwin was given three years. 

In October, U Nyi Pu was sentenced to two years in prison for incitement under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code. 

U Nyi Pu and U Min Aung were detained in February of last year as the military carried out a coup in which many members of the NLD were taken into custody. U Kyaw Aye Thein and U Aung Kyaw Zan were detained in Yangon at the end of July. U Kyaw Lwin was arrested on Ramree Island in Arakan State in August. All of them are being held in Sittwe Prison. 

The NLD won a landslide victory in the 2020 general election, but the military overthrew the civilian government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021, citing alleged vote-rigging. The international community has largely rejected those claims, as has much of the Myanmar public.