Six candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds have had their applications to represent the main opposition party in upcoming polls rejected by the country’s election commission.
The rejected politicians are from Kachin, Shan, Kayan and Rakhine states and Mandalay Region.
They include Shwe Maung, a sitting Rohingya MP who was approved as a citizen ahead of the 2010 elections.
A source close to the party, who was not named, told 7 Day Daily that the “majority” of the candidates were rejected because the Union Election Commision said their parents were not citizens when they were born.
Nyan Win, a member of the National League for Democracy’s central executive committee said: “We don’t know what to do about this.”
The deadline for submitting candidates for scrutiny by the UEC was Monday.
Photo: U Shwe Maung, a sitting Rohingya MP, whose candidacy has been rejected. Aung Naing Soe / Coconuts Yangon
