YANGON, Myanmar
Myanmar’s Nov. 8 polls have clearly become a referendum on a government led by the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party despite the delay of official election results.
State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s party claims it has secured at least 402 seats, while it only requires 322 seats in the 642-member national legislature to elect a president and to remain in office for five more years.
“We definitely have 402 seats in the Union Parliament. We won 100% in at least five regions, but ethnic parties are winning a majority in two ethnic areas,” Aung Shin, an NLD spokesperson, told Anadolu Agency by phone.
One of the two ethnic areas where the ruling part was defeated by ethnic political parties is Rakhine state, known globally as home to Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
Rohignya Muslims were blocked from contesting
No Rohingya candidates were allowed to contest the elections, however, said the Democracy and Human Rights Party (DHRP) – the only party to represent the more than one million Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine.
“In both the 2015 and 2020 elections, all of our candidates were blocked from contesting,” said DHRP chairman Kyaw Min, adding the electoral body rejected the registration of seven candidates -- five in Rakhine state and two in the commercial capital Yangon.
Election authorities rejected the candidate applicants citing the Election Law, which requires an applicant to be born of two parents who are citizens of Myanmar.
Kyaw Min, who spent seven years in prison for his involvement in politics and was released under an amnesty in 2012, said the application rejection is baseless and discriminatory.
“The government has never issued citizenship cards to our parents, although they lived here for generations,” he said Tuesday.
As a result, no Rohingya candidate was allowed to run for parliament in the Nov. 8 elections.
“So we remain voiceless,” he said.
Vote cancelation in Rakhine
He estimated that less than 10% of the Rohingya who remain in Rakhine state could have voted in the elections because most Rohingya do not have citizenship documents.
More than 750,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh in 2016 and 2017 as the military unleashed a series of atrocities which saw entire villages being burned down, extrajudicial killings, and rape. The UN has called it a campaign which had "genocidal intent."
Buddhists in Rakhine also face similar discrimination in elections after the NLD-appointed Election Commission cancelled voting in nine of the state’s 17 townships on security grounds, disenfranchising more than 1.1 million voters.
The cancellations were the result of an ongoing conflict between the military and the Arakan Army, a Rakhine ethnic insurgent group, which has left thousands dead and more than 200,000 displaced since 2018.
Despite the vote cancellations in their core constituencies, early results show that Rakhine ethnic parties have strong support from voters.
Along with the Rohingya, who were denied voting rights ahead of the 2015 polls, voting was also cancelled in large parts of states including Rakhine, Shan and Kachin due to “security concerns.”
Post-election dilemma in Rakhine
The Arakan National Party (ANP), the largest ethnic party in Rakhine state, won seven seats in the regional parliament while the Arakan Front Party (AFP) swept two seats. The NLD won five seats in the regional parliament, where five military-appointed lawmaker are granted by the constitution.
The results present a dilemma for ethnic Rakhine parties to elect a house speaker who controls regional legislation.
A winning lawmaker from the ANP told Anadolu Agency that ethnic parties could either cooperate with the military or NLD for the house speaker position.
“We, the ANP and AFP, are willing to work with the NLD which would anyway appoint one of their loyalists as chief minister. In this way, administration and legislation should be checked and balanced,” said the lawmaker, who asked not to be named for fear that his comments could have an impact on negotiations with the NLD.
“The NLD should help us elect one of us as house speaker if they are seeking a solution rather than making more problems,” he told Anadolu Agency by phone.
He however admitted that it is likely that the NLD will ally with appointed military lawmakers to take the house speaker position.
“If the NLD tries to control both the regional government and parliament, it would be only creating a mess here,” he said.
ANP was known for its nationalist sentiment, and led by some nationalists including imprisoned prominent politician Aye Maung who were accused of instigating Rakhine villagers to attack Rohingya Muslims during the 2012 communal violence which left dozens dead and thousands homeless, mostly member of Rohingya minority group.
A Rohingya man in Buthidaung town in Rakhine state told Anadolu Agency that the power struggle between Rakhine parties and NLD could have impact on local people in the region, more or less.
“NLD takes administration sector then gives legislation to ANP. That’s the best way. Otherwise we don’t know what kind of mess would be waiting for the region,” said the man in a condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.
An NLD spokesperson, Myo Nyunt, said it is too early to comment on the issues but noted that this should not be a problem.
“We could work together for the benefit of people in the region. This should not be a deadlock,” he said.
“We could solve the issue easily through negotiations.”
