Under pressure on all sides, Union Election Commission reinstates 11 Muslim candidates
Eleven Muslim politicians have successfully challenged their controversial disqualification from contesting the November elections following a surprise reversal by the Union Election Commission.
Their reinstatement after appeal followed concerted pressure from the United States and eight other governments, which had urged Myanmar to hold “a credible, transparent and inclusive election” while expressing concerns “about the prospect of religion being used as a tool of division and conflict during the campaign season”.
The UEC had disqualified 124 would-be candidates earlier this month, many of them Muslims, following a murky vetting process. Two of those rejected were incumbent members of parliament, including a Muslim representative of the USDP who had applied to run as an independent.
Some of the successful candidates said they had learned on 21 September that their appeals had been approved by a UEC tribunal on 19 September. A UEC statement on its website named 11 reinstated candidates. Their religious affiliation was not listed but checks by The Myanmar Times with the candidates and parties confirmed that all were Muslim.
