Irrawaddy-July 6

The National League for Democracy (NLD) has difficulty finding candidates for the November general election in conflict-torn Rakhine State, according to the party’s vice-chairman, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung. In the 2015 election, the NLD lost to the Rakhine ethnic party, Arakan National Party (ANP), and holds less than 20 percent of seats in the state parliament. The NLD central executive committee meeting on Thursday discussed party members’ applications for candidacies in northern Rakhine, where Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA) are engaged in ongoing fighting. Some party members have recently applied for candidacies in Rakhine, said Dr. Zaw Myint Maung. There are 47 seats — 35 elected seats and 12 set aside for military appointees — in the state parliament and the ANP won a majority of seats in 2015.There are 61 constituencies in 17 townships in Rakhine. The NLD only won in 14 constituencies — one seat in the Upper House, an ethnic affairs minister position and seats for the Lower House and the state parliament in Myanaung, Thandwe, Taungup and Gwa townships in southern Rakhine.

Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/nld-struggles-find-rakhine-candidates-myanmar-general-election.html