July 28, Local authorities at Ingapu and Laputa Townships in Burma’s delta region Irrwaddy Division have been piling all sorts of pressure on National League for Democracy (NLD) members to quit the election winning party led by detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“There are two things the divisional (NLD) organising committee members (told me). One, if they do not quit, they will go to jail and another thing, the son of the NLD chairman of the local ward there, is carrying out his duties with the township fire brigade. (They told him that) he will lose his job, your children will lose their jobs,” NLD spokesman Nyan Win told DVB. “Another thing, Laputa Township organising committee chairwoman Dr. Aye Kyu herself came to report at the office (NLD HQs in Rangoon) today. They (the authorities) have been pressuring NLD members to quit in the wards of the town and they refused to do so. Someone called Ma (Miss) San San Htay said that she joined the party out of belief; I can’t quit. If I want to quit, I will go to the party and quit. I have no reason to quit, she insisted. But what the authorities are doing is - they used to give favours to the NLD (members) before. Now they are rather distant. They are forcing these people and some non-NLD members to sign resignation letters.”

The authorities at nearby Pegu Division in lower central Burma have also been piling on similar pressure on NLD members, but members are still resisting pressures and intimidations hurled against them because they say that Pegu Division was a place where many people gave up their lives during the 1988 pro-democracy nationwide uprising, Nyaunglebin NLD organising committee member Aung Thwin Oo told DVB.