RNDP pushes to tighten voting eligibility criteria

RNDP pushes to tighten voting eligibility criteria

By Bill O'Toole   |   Sunday, 18 August 2013

The Rakhine Nationalities Development Party plans to introduce legislation during the current session of parliament that would only allow people with a National Registration Card to vote but has denied the move is aimed at disenfranchising the Muslim Rohingya group.

The party is seeking to amend election laws that give any eligible "citizen, associate citizen, naturalized citizen or holder of temporary certificate" the right to vote.

RNDP chairman U Aye Maung said the proposed change was primarily designed to protect the rights of the Rakhine ethnic group, who he said is in danger of being overwhelmed by "Bengali" illegal immigrants.

"If we give Bengalis political rights, we will lose control of the region ... Bengalis living peacefully in Rakhine have the right to work and the right to move freely, but they should not have the right to vote," he told The Myanmar Times last week.

However, he said the law is not intended to target Muslims specifically but rather to protect "national sovereignty".

He said that because Myanmar cannot properly police its borders, many people hold identity documents who should not have them and under the current laws this also gives them the right to vote. "Many are not real citizens; some have Chinese blood, some have Indian blood."

Given that a large percentage of Muslims in Rakhine State do not hold an NRC, a number of sources said the proposed law is part of a campaign to stop them from voting in future elections. In 2010, a handful of Rohingya, or Bengali, politicians were elected to state and national legislatures.

One of them is U Shwe Maung, the Pyithu Hluttaw representative for Buthidaung in northern Rakhine State for the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). He said the RNDP can propose any law it wants but he would "strongly" oppose efforts to strip non-NRC holders of voting rights. "They want to cause harm to the Muslim people," he said.

He said the RNDP's justification for the proposed legislation "is not credible" and "sounds like an excuse".

"The Rakhine people have been accusing Rohingya of being illegal immigrants since independence [in 1948]," he said.

U Aye Maung said his party would also seek to have anybody who identifies themselves as Rohingya removed from parliament. He described U Shwe Maung as a "dangerous person" with ties to a powerful, international Rohingya military group known as the Rohingya Soldiers Organization.

U Shwe Maung described the accusations as "ridiculous nonsense".

"[U Aye Maung] wants, at the same time, to remove our voting rights and remove us from parliament ... We were officially elected."

But Muslim politicians are not the only political leaders concerned by the proposal. One Shan politician, who asked not to be named, said the law could affect the voting rights of a wide range of ethnic minorities, particularly those affected by internal conflict.

"We have so much internal fighting. So many people have to flee their homes. Many have lost their NRC cards," he said.

The politician said he had raised the issue directly with President U Thein Sein last month and explained to the president that he thought the change would be unfair. However, he predicted a long and acrimonious debate in the hluttaw when it is raised. "It's a big problem coming," he said.

U Aye Maung said members of recognised ethnic groups, such as the Shan, Kayan or Kachin, should not be worried about losing their voting rights as they can make "special arrangements" with their local governments. However, he did not elaborate on what form these arrangements would take.

It is unclear how the major parties will vote on the proposed change. The National League for Democracy did not respond to a request for comment, while USDP vice chairman U Htay Oo said the party did not discuss the issue during its executive committee meeting last week and for now has no comment. "We will examine [the proposal] when it is introduced in the parliament."

The USDP certainly has enough MPs to snuff out the proposal. However, there is a possibility that it could turn against its own Rohingya MPs and approve the change in a bid to win support from ethnic Burmese communities, many of which also appear to oppose greater rights for the Rohingya.

In Rakhine State, the move would most affect young people, said U Aung Win, a Rohingya activist in the Sittwe area.

He told The Myanmar Times that the state government had issued only a handful of NRCs to Muslims since 1990, leaving almost an entire generation without cards. His own children sent applications to Nay Pyi Taw four years ago and have never received a response, he said.

U Win Myaing, a spokesperson for the Rakhine State government, agreed that very few NRCs have been issued to Muslims in Rakhine State in the past two decades but insisted that it was due to applicants having insufficient proof of citizenship, and not systematic discrimination against Muslims.

An NRC is already necessary for many aspects of life in Myanmar. "Without documents, people face difficulties in a number of civil processes; for example, ... getting married [and] placing requests for travelling outside their village/township," said Steve O'Brien, a spokesperson for the United Nations Refugee Agency in Yangon.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/08/18/rndp-pushes-to-tighten-voting-eligibility-criteria/