The party heavyweights’ first campaign speeches were delivered at the Dagon Seikkan constituency, which has experienced elections a few times since the 2010 general election – a by-election in 2012, the 2015 general election and this coming by-election.

NLD patron U Tin Oo told the audience that voters in that constituency have a reputation for choosing the right candidates and they should maintain that.

“Although this is a by-election, the candidate chosen from this by-election will represent you until 2020. So you should think of this as a preparation for the 2020 general election and I want you all to maintain your reputation of choosing the right ones, which is to choose our candidate,” he said.

In this by-election, the NLD ran by the slogan, “Continue the Change, Vote for NLD,” a follow-up on their 2015 general election slogan, “Time for Change”.

The party has received criticisms from international and regional observers that there have not been enough significant changes during one year that the new government has been in place.

U Tin Oo replied to those complaints during yesterday’s speech, saying that the mess the NLD government inherited was a 50-year-old mess.

“People complain that the NLD government is not doing a good job but we are really doing well by clearing one mess after another.

“There are so many issues which the NLD government inherited and the mess is from the duration of 50 years,” said U Tin Oo.

U Win Myint, who came to Yangon to lead the campaign for three days at six different places as a party’s CEC member, agreed with U Tin Oo and cited specific examples.

“Our new parliamentary session has made many changes as some are obvious and some are not. An example of an obvious change is terminating the State Emergency Act. The other changes which are not obvious at this moment are increasing the budget for education and health,” he said.

He continued to explain that changes which are not obvious will become apparent after some time.

Around 100 people attended the session with NLD seniors and supported them yesterday morning at the Dagon Seikkan constituency’s Block C football field.

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