Since then periodic bouts of religious bloodshed have overshadowed Myanmar’s reform efforts as it begins to emerge from the grip of outright military rule under a quasi-civilian government, which came into power in 2011.
Kyaw Min said powerful parties are avoiding Muslims either out of fear that they will lose votes or with the deliberate intent to keep the Muslims out of formal political arena.
While Suu Kyi has faced global disappointment at her reluctance to speak out in support of the Rohingya, she is viewed with suspicion among Rakhine hardliners who see her as supportive of Muslims.
“I wanted to vote for the NLD”, domestic helper Romar Thapa, 27, told AFP, adding she was unsure why her registration had failed.
About 140,000 Rohingya were displaced in 2012 by violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine and remain in temporary camps with severe restrictions on their movements.
“The current government said we are in a democratic society, but it’s not true”, he said.
In a speech to hundreds of supporters in Rakhine’s Thandwe town, Suu Kyi said it was critical that people nationwide could live “without discrimination based on race and religion”.
At the release of their latest report, “Disenfranchisement and Desperation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State: Drivers of a Regional Crisis”, the APHR warned that exclusionary government policies, including mass disenfranchisement of Rohingya ahead of November’s historic general election, is exacerbating the already intense sense of desperation within Rohingya communities.
Suu Kyi is on a three-day campaign trip to Rakhine but has decided not to travel to the state capital, Sittwe, and other more northern townships which are home to the majority of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims.
At the Thandwe headquarters of the Arakan National Party - which promotes the rights of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists - the party’s vice chair for Thandwe constituency, U Ko Mg Mg Phyu, told The Myanmar Times on October 13 that he did not distinguish between Kaman Muslims and those who call themselves Rohingya. However, violence did erupt in Thandwe in 2013 when ethnic Rakhine villagers attacked Muslim Kaman villagers.
Chaw Sandi Tun, 25, was arrested in Yangon on Monday after questioning the similarity of the colour of the new uniform for army officers with that of a “longyi” (traditional skirt) worn by National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But while he welcomed the opposition leader, he asked her to empathize with the Rakhine people, who he said suffer economic hardship.
“We want democracy and improvement”.
Predicting at least 1000 people would turn out, he said, “Everyone knows Daw Aung San Suu Kyi”.
The Muslims have put their hopes in the NLD even though the party did not field a Muslim candidate on its lists of over 1,100 hopefuls standing in the November 8 election and has been criticized for not speaking out against their marginalisation.
Not only are there very few Muslim candidates running in the elections, but most are representing little-known political parties, leaving many with slim chances of winning any seats.
