Candidate

Burma’s next parliament may be devoid of Muslims

On 8 November, Burma will go to the polls in what has been billed as the first free and fair parliamentary election in 25 years, yet the marginalisation of the Muslim community has left local and international observers concerned about how democratic the vote will be. Of the more than 6,000 candidates running in the elections, the overwhelming majority of them are Buddhist, and only 28 are Muslim, representing just 0.5 percent of candidates, according to the final list of candidates released by the Union Election Commission (UEC). Muslims make up about 5 percent of the country’s predominantly Buddhist population. The UEC has rejected more than a hundred would-be candidates, mostly Muslims, stating that their parents were not recognised as citizens yet at the time of the candidate’s birth, meaning their candidacy would be in violation of the Elections Law. The decision has raised concerns among rights groups and observers, and regional lawmakers warned it could “undermine the credibility of the contest”. “In any other country, the rejection of an entire class of candidates would render the contest itself undemocratic,” Charles Santiago, a member of parliament from Malaysia and chairperson of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said in a statement in September. Religious…