- Several million people from minority groups were prevented from voting
- Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory in November’s parliamentary elections – despite scathing international criticism of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority
- Listen to Ekot’s interview with activist Naw Ohn La, named Human Rights Defender of the Year by Civil Rights Defenders
Myanmar’s parliamentary elections in November were another landslide victory for leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But many criticize the electoral process. One of them is the activist Naw Ohn La, who has been named human rights defender of the year by the Swedish organization Civil Rights Defenders.
– No, I do not accept the election result, says Naw Ohn La. That the election was even carried out was irresponsible given the high spread of corona infection, she thinks. But above all, she criticizes the Electoral Commission’s decision to cancel elections in several states dominated by ethnic minorities. In total, an estimated two and a half million of Myanmar’s 37 million eligible voters have been blocked from voting. For that we have received different, often contradictory explanations, says Naw Ohn La.
Parliamentary elections on November 8 ended in an overwhelming win for the ruling party, the NLD. For many, it was a confirmation that the growing international criticism of party leader Aung san Suu Kyi has not nibbled on her popularity in Myanmar. But it is a misleading picture, says Naw Ohn La, who is one of the country’s most prominent human rights activists. She was once a supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi – Today she is one of the leader’s foremost critics.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has fallen out of favor with the international community since defending the military’s brutal crackdown on the Muslim minority Rohingya. The UN has called the action ethnic cleansing.
Naw Ohn La himself belongs to the Karen ethnic group, based in southeastern Myanmar. One of several minority groups that Aung San Suu Kyi promised to listen to when she came to power, says Naw Ohn La – but with this year’s election, it is clear that it was not true.
Source: ICELAND NEWS