Union Solidarity and Development Party candidate Soe Thein, a former President’s Office minister, has won re-election in his lower house seat in Bawlakhe, Kayah state, where rival parties accused him in 2015 of buying votes with gifts to local constituents. 

The retired general had received 2,835 votes as of this morning for the Pyithu Hluttaw seat, while his National League for Democracy opponent Sai Lin Lin Oo had received 1,970, with 611 votes left to be counted. 

Soe Thein ran in the same constituency as an independent candidate in the 2015 election for the Amyotha Hluttaw, or upper house, and won with 52% of the vote.

He served as the President’s Office minister and as chair of the Myanmar Investment Commission during Thein Sein’s presidency after becoming the USDP MP for Kyun Su township in Tanintharyi region in the 2010 election. 

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He was accused of buying votes ahead of the 2015 election after giving out numerous gifts to the local community. He gave teachers money to buy uniforms for their students, organised football matches and gave a cash reward to the winning team, and donated cars to monasteries in Bawlakhe.

He also paid to install SkyNet television satellites for government employees in the area.  

As President’s Office minister, he was responsible for building schools, installing water pipes and electricity lines, and building new roads and bridges for regional development.

After winning in 2015, Soe Thein paid ambulance and medical fees for pregnant women and paid for students to train as nurses. 

“Most people are really fond of him. Even when he was contesting as an independent, people welcomed him with drums when he came to the town,” said Ei Ei Mon, a teacher from Ywarthit in Bawlakhe, last month. 

Soe Thein has also helped high school graduates get into university, funded school sports events, and provided teachers with their school uniforms yearly, she said.

The USDP has also beat the NLD in Bawlakhe by about 300 votes for a seat in the State Hluttaw, and has won the Amyotha Hluttaw seat there too. 

The NLD’s Sai Lin Lin Oo said that 556 military personnel voted in the constituency, and that this is the reason his opponent won. The NLD won the civilian vote, he said. 

He had hoped that some military members would vote for NLD after a decision to move polling stations outside of barracks, but it made little difference, he said.

“Initially we were hoping to get at least one-fourth of their votes,” he said. But that hope faded after commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing publically called upon people to vote for a party that uphold nationalist causes, he said. 

Locals say about half of Bawlakhe’s residents are soldiers and their family members, retired military personnel or government workers. Bawlakhe is home to three infantry battalions, one Border Guard Force and a Tactical Force.

Soe Thein served in the Navy for 41 years and achieved the rank of Lieutenant General. 

Thirty-five candidates from seven parties and one independent candidate ran in Bawlakhe this year.