YANGON: Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) said Monday it was confident of winning a landslide victory in Myanmar as official results trickled in following the weekend’s coronavirus-disrupted election.
Millions lined up for hours to cast their ballots on Sunday — only the second national election since the country emerged from outright military rule in 2011.
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi remains a heroine for many in the Bamar majority heartlands, in spite of a global reputation left in tatters by her handling of the Rohingya crisis and widespread disillusionment in many ethnic minority areas.
NLD supporters celebrated late into the night on Sunday — and hundreds more drove in convoys around the outskirts of Yangon Monday, wearing red and flying the party’s fighting peacock flag.
Party spokesman Myo Nyunt told AFP that information from party agents across the country suggested the NLD had “won a landslide victory.”
“We won’t only win the 322 seats we need to form a government, but we expect to break our 2015 record of 390.”
In 2015, the NLD won a landslide but was forced by the constitution into an uneasy power-sharing agreement with the military, which controls three key ministries and a quarter of parliamentary seats.
The military-aligned USDP opposition, Myanmar’s next biggest party, said it was still collecting information and would not comment.
Official confirmation of the overall result is not expected for another few days.
Spiralling coronavirus cases did not deter millions from voting on Sunday.
Face masks were compulsory, but crowds ignored strict physical distancing measures at many polling stations at a time when swathes of the country are in a lockdown.
Suu Kyi refused to delay the polls and many observers fear the day could have been one huge super-spreader event.
But voter Kyaw Min Han, 65, told AFP he had been “very impressed” with the government’s organization as well as polling station staff and volunteers.
Rights groups slammed the election, however, which saw nearly two million disenfranchised from an electorate of 37 million.
The polls were canceled in many ethnic minority areas for “security reasons” — while nearly all of the country’s remaining 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have long been stripped of citizenship and rights.
“A core principle of elections under international law is universal and equal suffrage and that is not what took place,” said Ismail Wolff from Fortify Rights.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the election an “important step in the country’s democratic transition.”
But he highlighted some of the problems on Sunday, including the “disfranchisement of groups including Rohingya” and the cancelation of voting in some areas.
He also expressed US concern over “the large number of unelected seats constitutionally reserved for the military.”
The EU on Monday commended the high participation and peaceful voting but also called for the “full inclusion of all ethnic, religious and minority groups of the country, including the Rohingya community.”
Suu Kyi’s party confident of landslide victory in Myanmar polls
https://arab.news/r5stg
Suu Kyi’s party confident of landslide victory in Myanmar polls
- Nobel laureate Suu Kyi remains a heroine for many in the Bamar majority heartlands, in spite of a global reputation left in tatters by her handling of the Rohingya crisis
- NLD supporters celebrated late into the night on Sunday — and hundreds more drove in convoys around the outskirts of Yangon Monday, wearing red and flying the party’s fighting peacock flag
Bangladesh halts controversial relocation of Rohingya refugees to remote island
- Administration of ousted PM Sheikh Hasina spent about $350m on the project
- Rohingya refuse to move to island and 10,000 have fled, top refugee official says
DHAKA: When Bangladesh launched a multi-million-dollar project to relocate Rohingya refugees to a remote island, it promised a better life. Five years on, the controversial plan has stalled, as authorities find it is unsustainable and refugees flee back to overcrowded mainland camps.
The Bhasan Char island emerged naturally from river sediments some 20 years ago. It lies in the Bay of Bengal, over 60 km from Bangladesh’s mainland.
Never inhabited, the 40 sq. km area was developed to accommodate 100,000 Rohingya refugees from the cramped camps of the coastal Cox’s Bazar district.
Relocation to the island started in early December 2020, despite protests from the UN and humanitarian organizations, which warned that it was vulnerable to cyclones and flooding, and that its isolation restricted access to emergency services.
Over 1,600 people were then moved to Bhasan Char by the Bangladesh Navy, followed by another 1,800 the same month. During 25 such transfers, more than 38,000 refugees were resettled on the island by October 2024.
The relocation project was spearheaded by the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted last year. The new administration has since suspended it indefinitely.
“The Bangladesh government will not conduct any further relocation of the Rohingya to Bhasan Char island. The main reason is that the country’s present government considers the project not viable,” Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News on Sunday.
The government’s decision was prompted by data from UN agencies, which showed that operations on Bhasan Char involved 30 percent higher costs compared with the mainland camps in Cox’s Bazar, Rahman said.
“On the other hand, the Rohingya are not voluntarily coming forward for relocation to the island. Many of those previously relocated have fled ... Around 29,000 are currently living on the island, while about 10,000 have returned to Cox’s Bazar on their own.”
A mostly Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s and have faced systemic persecution ever since.
In 2017 alone, some 750,000 of them crossed to neighboring Bangladesh, fleeing a deadly crackdown by Myanmar’s military. Today, about 1.3 million of them shelter in 33 camps in the coastal Cox’s Bazar district, making it the world’s largest refugee settlement.
Bhasan Char, where the Bangladeshi government spent an estimated $350 million to construct concrete residential buildings, cyclone shelters, roads, freshwater systems, and other infrastructure, offered better living conditions than the squalid camps.
But there was no regular transport service to the island, its inhabitants were not allowed to travel freely, and livelihood opportunities were few and dependent on aid coming from the mainland.
Rahman said: “Considering all aspects, we can say that Rohingya relocation to Bhasan Char is currently halted. Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s regime, only one batch of Rohingya was relocated to the island.
“The relocation was conducted with government funding, but the government is no longer allowing any funds for this purpose.”
“The Bangladeshi government has spent around $350 million on it from its own funds ... It seems the project has not turned out to be successful.”
