MORE HUNDRED MUSLIM CANDIDATES BANNED TO PARTICIPATE MYANMAR ELECTION

Yangon, Myanmar, 14 Dzulhijjah 1436/28 September 2015 (MINA) – Myanmar election officials have released the final list of candidates to stand in a highly anticipated general election on Nov. 8.

However, more than a hundred including many Muslims were controversially excluded from the list released this week, underlining a series of problems that threaten to damage the poll’s credibility.

More than 6,000 people will contend for regional and national seats in what is expected to be one of the freest polls in decades, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

It is the first time the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party has agreed to contest a general election since 1990, when it won by a landslide but was not allowed to take power.

The poll comes almost five years after the start of a radical process of political and economic reforms that have lifted Myanmar out of global isolation, helped end most sanctions and spurred rapid economic growth.

If the election is largely credible it could be a significant milestone towards making the country more democratic, open and peaceful. If not there will be severe doubts about the veracity of reforms that many have already criticized as superficial.

The reformist government, which was installed by the former military junta in 2011, has pledged free and fair elections. But less than two months before polling day, that is looking less and less likely as complaints mount about flaws in the process.

Among the most serious is the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, a much maligned minority.

The group was allowed to vote in both a 2010 poll and in 1990. Their exclusion this time around comes amid a rising wave of Buddhist nationalism. (T/P001/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)