“People’s Pioneer Party Chair Daw Thet Thet Khine and One Central Committee Member Arrested.”

According to party members, the military council arrested and is interrogating Daw Thet Thet Khine, Chairperson of the People’s Pioneer Party, along with a Central Committee member, on the evening of January 13. A party member told DVB that Daw Thet Thet Khine was arrested at around 6:30 p.m. yesterday at her home on Dhammaceti Road in Sanchaung Township, and that a Central Committee member was also detained. “The arrest is confirmed. We still do not know the exact reason for it. Last evening, around 20 soldiers led by two colonels came and made the arrests. One Central Committee member was among those detained,” the source said. In the 2025 election, Daw Thet Thet Khine had planned to run as a candidate for the House of Nationalities (Amyotha Hluttaw) from Yangon Region Constituency No. 2. However, she was removed as a candidate by the military on November 25 due to alleged financial irregularities. In the military-organized 2025 election, the People’s Pioneer Party contested a total of 672 seats—193 in the House of Representatives, 145 in the House of Nationalities, 320 in regional and state assemblies, and 14 ethnic affairs minister positions—but had not won any seats even after the completion of the first and second phases. Similarly, in the 2020 election, the People’s Pioneer Party fielded more than 230 candidates across 11 states and regions but failed to win a single seat. Daw Thet Thet Khine, who joined the National League for Democracy in 2014 and won a seat as a Pyithu Hluttaw representative for Dagon Township in the 2015 election, was later expelled from the NLD. She went on to establish the People’s Pioneer Party in 2019. Following the military coup, the junta leader appointed Daw Thet Thet Khine as Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement and as Minister for Hotels and Tourism. She was removed from these positions in January 2025.