"A decision by People’s Party chair Ko Ko Gyi to attend a meeting convened by a junta-appointed election body on Friday has cost the party more than a third of its senior leaders. Seven of the party’s 20 central executive committee members have resigned over the move, according to co-founder Ye Naing Aung, who was among those who stepped down. The two men, who have known each other since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, were divided over whether to accept an invitation from the Union Election Commission (UEC) to attend the meeting. “I expressed the view that we shouldn’t accept, because it wasn’t in line with the will, desires, or expectations of the people,” Ye Naing Aung told Myanmar Now. “However, a majority decided to attend the meeting. Since I couldn’t accept that decision, I resigned as the party’s secretary,” he said. Aye Aye Khaing, another CEC member, confirmed that she also resigned for the same reason. “Some members of our party have been arrested. Some of my friends have lost their children. I could not turn my back on them and meet with election officials appointed by this junta,” she said. According to Ye Naing Aung, there were also many resignations from the party’s more than 80 township-level branch offices, especially in Mandalay Region. Myo Aung, the secretary of the party’s office in Kayin State’s Myawaddy Township, told Myanmar Now that he simply could not accept Ko Ko Gyi’s justification for the decision. “It is impossible to form a federal union just by cooperating [with the junta]. What they did was unacceptable to the entire country and very evil,” he said, noting that the regime has killed more than 800 people since seizing power on February 1. He added that regional party officials were not given an opportunity to express their views on the subject or even informed about the decision. The meeting on Friday was the second convened by the UEC since the regime replaced all of its members with its own appointees soon after the coup. The People's Party rejected an invitation to the first meeting, held in late February, because the newly formed UEC “did not try to resolve issues related to the results of the 2020 multi-party democratic general election in accordance with the law,” the party said at the time. Ko Ko Gyi acknowledged that party’s current stance was “more dangerous”. "The path we have chosen now is more arduous and more dangerous. We have to act with political courage and political faith,” he told Myanmar Now. He reiterated that a majority of the party’s CEC members were behind the decision to attend Friday’s meeting and added that it would not compromise the party's pro-democracy principles. Ko Ko Gyi did not comment on the resignations of the members, but said that many party members expressed their support on social media. “With other like-minded people, a political party must continue,” he said. Formed in 2018, the People's Party has about 100,000 members. In addition to its township-level branch offices, it has around 400 quarter/village-level offices. The party fielded more than 150 candidates in the 2020 general election but did not win any seats. Ko Ko Gyi contested a lower house seat representing Yangon’s South Okkalapa Township, but was defeated by a candidate from the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD went on to win a landslide victory in the election, but was ousted by military before it could begin its second term in power. The military used unfounded allegations of electoral fraud as a pretext for overthrowing the NLD government. Soon after seizing power, the regime reorganized the UEC and appointed former military judge advocate-general Thein Soe to act as its chair. Thein Soe previously served as chair of the UEC during the 2010 election, which most observers regarded as rigged in favour of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The NLD boycotted that election, but soundly defeated the incumbent USDP government five years later. It performed even more strongly in last year’s election..."