The Democracy and Human Rights Party (DHRP), a political party representing Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya has requested the election authorities to allow members of the minority who hold temporary “white card” IDs to vote for November’s election.
Earlier in 2010, around 1 million Rohingya from Rakhine state who held white cards were permitted to vote when Rohingya candidates from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won parliamentary seats in the election. But in 2013, the right to vote was taken away from the cardholders under the government of former president Thein Sein, a retired general who ruled Myanmar for five years till 2016.
“Rohingyas lost their right to vote and to contest in elections,” DHRP secretary Kyaw Soe Aung told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “Now, the Rohingya are asking for the rights that they lost during Thein Sein’s government.”
According to the Union Election Commission (UEC), more than 300,000 Muslims (Rohingyas) resides in the Northern Rakhine townships of Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and Rathedaung. However, the United Nation fact-finding mission has stated that there are 600000 Rohingyas living inside the country.
Recent Comments