'Int'l community should condemn mass disenfranchisement of Rohingya'

Fortify Rights said on Monday the international community should condemn the mass disenfranchisement of Rohingya in Myanmar's national elections held on November 8, reports UNB.

"A core principle of elections under international law is universal and equal suffrage and that is not what took place yesterday," said Ismail Wolff, Regional Director of Fortify Rights.

The international community must unequivocally condemn the disenfranchisement of Rohingya and other ethnic nationalities or risk paving the path for future violations, he said.

Human rights groups and other observers have raised serious concerns regarding Myanmar's elections this year, including the disenfranchisement of ethnic minority voters, most notably the Rohingya.

Other concerns include the government's continued crackdown on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including the arbitrary arrest and detention of civil society actors and activists.

Monitors also raised questions about the impartiality of the Union Election Commission (UEC) and rulings that censored opposition political parties and facilitated the disenfranchisement of voters based on their ethnic and religious identity.

The country's constitution continues to reserve 25 per cent of seats in parliament for unelected military officials and grants the military control of key government ministries in contravention of democratic norms.

Following decades of authoritarian military rule, the international community mostly lauded Myanmar's elections in 2015 as a formative step towards democratisation and restoration of human rights despite the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya voters.

Five years on, the Rohingya suffered genocide and crimes against humanity and the National League for Democracy (NLD) government continues to imprison human rights defenders while also failing to reform key institutions, including the military and judiciary.

The NLD government also failed to advance peace-building in restive ethnic states mired in decades-long civil war.