Senior ANP member U Pe Than quits party 

By DMG 20 Aug 2021

DMG Newsroom
20 August 2021, Myebon 

Former Pyithu Hluttaw lawmaker for Myebon Township U Pe Than, who had remained a member of the Steering Committee for Policy Affairs of the Arakan National Party (ANP) even after the military voided the 2020 election results earlier this year, has resigned from the party. 

U Pe Than told DMG that he submitted his resignation on June 13, saying he had decided to quit because he did not like the stance and policies of the party following the military coup on February 1, which effectively suspended parliamentary politics indefinitely. 

“Some party leaders are working on what they want to do without following the regulations and policies of the party. It is one of the reasons I decided to resign,” he said. 

U Pe Than added that he believed people’s interest in party politics was decreasing following the coup, so he decided to resign from being an ANP member to be able to work for nationalism freely.   

Though he submitted his resignation more than two months ago, ANP leadership has yet to respond, U Pe Than said, while adding that he no longer considered himself to hold any party responsibilities.   

“The party has not made any response so far. Whether the party has responded or not, I do not have the duty of spokesperson for the committee. The party did not tell me this, but I believed that I am not responsible for that task,” he said.  

When DMG asked ANP chair U Thar Tun Hla about the resignation of U Pe Than, he responded that he “cannot say about it at the moment.”  

The ANP secured seven out of 14 seats up for grabs in the Arakan State Hluttaw in the 2020 general election, as well as winning the most seats representing the state in the lower and upper houses of the national parliament. It performed similarly in the 2015 general election.  

Despite its electoral preeminence in Arakan State over recent years, the party has been riven by the post-coup political landscape. In the weeks following the February 1 military takeover, the ANP was criticised over its decision to work with the junta, with one of the party’s senior members taking a seat on the SAC. Multiple party members tendered their resignations in protest of its cooperation with the military government, which the party eventually walked back.