Since January 9th, the Military Council has begun to collect population census in some local villages, including Rohingya Muslim villages in Maungdaw township of Arakan state as a preparation election in August of this year.
“The census has already started in Maungdaw, including in some Rohingya the Muslim villages, but not all Rohingya villages. They are taking the census according to the household lists, saying it is for voter registration,” said MH, a Rohingya youth from the Maungdaw.
“We don’t believe them yet, we need to see and wait’, he added.
On December 20th, 109 people were trained for a day at U Ottama hall in Sittwe to conduct the door-to-door census across Rakhine state.
U Hla Thein, Chief Legal Officer for Rakhine state wrote on his social media page on December 20th that 1290 groups with over 6000 members will be formed to collect the census in every township in Rakhine state and Paletwa township on January 9th
