Suu Kyi Appeals for worldwide Community to Monitor Myanmar’s General Elections
Rohingya Muslims have been recognized by the United Nations as one of the world’s most persecuted communities.
She has said the party will choose a candidate from within its ranks after the election. However it has discovered no place for long-time Muslim members, together with former political prisoners, who put themselves forwards as parliamentary hopefuls.
This is the first time the NLD is allowed to run in Myanmar’s elections following years of the junta rule. However, it’s believed the move is part of the rampant anti-Muslim sentiment in the Southeast Asian nation. The NLD’s failure to subject a single Muslim candidate is an try and appease hardline Buddhists, stated Ko Ni, a Muslim lawyer and social gathering member.
U Shwe Maung, a sitting MP with the ruling pro-military party, has found himself the centre of the controversy after he was not just barred from running for office again but stripped of the right even to vote under the new rules.
The election fee decreed that he was ineligible to participate within the elections on the grounds that he allegedly couldn’t show that his mother and father have been residents on the time of their births.
Mr Shwe Maung, a Rohingya, said the claim was ridiculous, noting that he had delivered a long paper trail of evidence and that his father had served a senior police officer. His appeal to the state election commission “was thrown out in less than 10 seconds”, he says. “Many Muslims are saying they will not vote”.
Burma’s election fee additionally rejected 17 out of 18 candidates from a celebration supporting Rohingya Muslims forward of the ballot.
Newly elected MPs will meet early next year to nominate three presidential candidates.
But does Suu Kyi care?
Parties are banned from criticizing the military or the junta-drafted constitution in campaign speeches in state media.
But a week after it was held Ms Suu Kyi was released and her party stood in 2012 by-elections, winning 43 of the 44 seats it contested, including her own. Ms. Suu Kyi was married to a Briton and has two sons with foreign nationalities.
Aung San Suu Kyi is calling for vigorous global monitoring of her country’s November general elections that will be the first since decades of military rule ended there in 2011.
The structure successfully bars Suu Kyi from turning into president, even when the NLD wins a majority, and it additionally provides the military a veto over constitutional change.
In a video posted Tuesday on the Facebook page of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, the longtime democracy advocate said the vote will be “the first time in decades our people will have a chance of bringing about real change”.
However she additionally made reference to the challenges forward. “We hope that the whole world understands how important it is for us to have free and fair elections and to make sure that the results of such an election are respected by all concerned”.
Suu Kyi “must be afraid” of the monks, the politician said on condition of anonymity.