Suu Kyi's Myanmar election win fails to excite foreign investors

NIKKEI ASIA
YUICHI NITTA,
Nikkei staff writer
November 24, 2020

Aung San Suu Kyi's fervid supporters show a clear contrast from the cool attitude of western media and human rights organizations. (Nikkei montage/Source photo by Reuters) 

 

Overseas companies put off by red tape, poor infrastructure and plight of Rohingya

YANGON -- Aung San Suu Kyi's landslide Myanmar election win this month triggered a frenzy of excitement among her supporters, but it was met with cool shrugs by many foreign governments and investors seeking economic and political reform.

On the polling day of Nov. 8, voters lined up from early morning to cast their ballots support for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. And for three nights, dozens of people stood outside the NLD's headquarters in Yangon chanting her name as incoming results pointed to a huge victory for the party.

Myanmar Went To the Polls for the Second Time Since the End of Military Rule but the Election Was Not Free or Fair

TIMES

By Wai Wai Nu

November 12, 2020 

Officials of the Union Election Commission count votes during the multi-party general elections at a polling station in Yangon, Myanmar, Nov. 8, 2020.
U Aung—Xinhua via Getty

 

The Rohingya Muslim minority, to which I belong, was again disenfranchised during Myanmar’s election on Nov. 8. My community, which has faced violence and discrimination, is being even further erased from our country. Many ethnic Rakhine, Shan, Kachin, and Karen were also not able to vote. An election that excludes entire communities because of their identity cannot be considered credible, free, nor fair.

Myanmar Election Delivers Another Decisive Win for Aung San Suu Kyi

The New York Times 

By Hannah Beech and Saw Nang

Nov. 11, 2020

The civilian leader’s reputation overseas has been stained by her defense of a military accused of genocide. But in voting on Sunday, her party easily secured a parliamentary majority.

Supporters of the National League for Democracy in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday with portraits of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whom many in the country still regard as a bulwark against military rule.Credit...Ye Aung Thu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

The political party led by Myanmar’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is poised to stay in power after winning what is only the second truly contested election the country has held in decades, though one in which many voters from ethnic minority groups were prevented from casting their ballots.

Rohingya frustrated over polarized elections in Myanmar

AA

Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh
08.11.2020

More than 1M Rohingya in Bangladesh, over half million in Myanmar have been excluded from voting in Sunday's polls

Living in squalid makeshift tents in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, more than one million Rohingya have been disenfranchised in the Sunday’s general elections in Myanmar, rising frustration among the persecuted people.

“According to international law, voting right is a fundamental right, but we are being denied by the government of Myanmar. We are citizens of Myanmar. So we must deserve the right of voting,” Khin Maung, a Rohingya youth in Bangladesh’s camps, told Anadolu Agency.

Aung San Suu Kyi expected to keep power in Myanmar election

The Guardian  

Rebecca Ratcliffe
South-east Asia correspondent
Sun 8 Nov 2020

‘Mother Suu’ remains popular despite coronavirus, conflict in Rakhine state and genocide charges

Voters wearing protective face masks line up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Yangon, Myanmar. Photograph: Thein Zaw/AP

Voters across Myanmar have gone to the polls for an election that is expected to return to power the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains hugely popular at home despite allegations of a genocide that have destroyed her reputation abroad.

Queues of people waited in line, in some cases for hours, to cast their ballots on Sunday in the country’s second general election since the end of full military rule. Most were wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus. The country has confirmed more than 60,000 infections, the majority of which were reported since mid-August.

Why 1.5 million won’t vote when Myanmar holds its 2nd election since end of military rule

The Print
Pia Krishnankutty
6 November, 2020

Union Election Commission of Myanmar has cancelled voting in several places, including in the Rakhine State, home to the Rohingya Muslims.

 

File photo of Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi with supporters | Common

New Delhi: Myanmar will hold its general elections on 8 November for the second time since the end of military rule in the country in 2011.

The last general elections were held in 2015, in which State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide victory in what was considered the first relatively free election in the country in 25 years.

Hate Speech Against Rohingya in Myanmar Election Has Worrisome Precedents

RADIO FREE ASIA
2020-10-13

Rohingya candidate Abdul Rasheed, a member of the Democracy and Human Rights Party who was barred from running in Myanmar's upcoming elections, sits in the party's office in Yangon, Aug. 12, 2020. Rights groups decried his disqualification as discriminatory and a symptom of the 'ongoing genocide' against the persecuted ethnic minority group.

AFP

Online and offline hate speech targeting Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims has reared its head in the run-up to national elections in November, as some candidates and others target the largely disenfranchised and despised ethnic minority group to gain support from voters.

UN calls for Rohingya to take part in Myanmar election

EASTERNEYES
September 12, 2020

FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugees gather to mark the second anniversary of the exodus at the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, August 25, 2019. REUTERS/Rafiqur Rahman/File Photo

EIGHT Security Council members of the UN called for the Muslim Rohingya minority, victims in 2017 of what the UN calls a “genocide,” to participate in Myanmar’s upcoming elections.

The statement, published after a closed-door video conference, is signed by Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Tunisia, Britain and the US.

Facebook Improving Hate Speech Detection Ahead of Myanmar Election

The New York Times
By Reuters
Sept. 1, 2020

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Tuesday that it was preparing for Myanmar's general election in November by improving the detection and removal of hate speech and content that incites violence and preventing the spread of misinformation.

The company said in a blog that between now and Nov. 22, it would remove "verifiable misinformation and unverifiable rumours" that are assessed as having the potential to suppress the vote or damage the "integrity" of the electoral process.

Five Muslim Candidates Rejected From Myanmar’s Election

The Irrawaddy
By Htun Htun
18 August 2020

The Rakhine State Election Sub-commission meets to determine the eligibility of proposed candidates. / Rakhine State Election Sub-Commission

Yangon—Five Muslim candidates, including four Rohingyas, in Rakhine State have been rejected by the state election sub-commission to run in the November general election due to the citizenship status of their parents.

Four Rohinyga candidates are from the Democracy and Human Rights Party (DHRP) and the fifth is an independent looking to run for a Buthidaung Township Lower House seat.

“They were rejected mainly because their parents and grandparents were not yet citizens when they were born,” said sub-commission secretary U Thurein Htut.