BANGKOK, (Reuters) – The ouster of a powerful political rival less than three months before a landmark election in Myanmar was dramatic confirmation of President Thein Sein’s desire for a second term in office, analysts said.
Shwe Mann was removed as chairman of the ruling Union Solidarity and Develop-ment Party (USDP yesterday after security forces surrounded its headquarters in the capital, Naypyitaw.
Both Shwe Mann, long considered a presidential frontrunner, and the USDP’s secretary general were replaced by Thein Sein allies.
The move carried echoes of the ruthless purges carried out by the military junta that ruled Myanmar until 2011. Both Thein Sein, whose five-year term ends next March, and Shwe Mann are former generals.
“This is a reminder of a very unhappy past,” said Khin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadipa Institute, a Yangon-based think tank which advises some Myanmar lawmakers.
“This opens the way for (Thein Sein’s) second term,” he added. “His main rival is now gone.”
Thein Sein’s only other rival had been opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but she is banned from the presidency under a military-drafted constitution that the president has shown scant interest in changing.
“If this is a way to strengthen his hand, then he’s a potentially much stronger candidate than anyone else in the field right now,” said Christian Lewis, Southeast Asia political risk analyst at Eurasia Group.
On Nov. 8 Myanmar will hold what could be its first free and fair elections in 25 years.
