January 30, 2016

Hard-line Buddhists call for political control in Rakhine

A hard-line Buddhist party in Myanmar is demanding that one of its members be appointed as chief minister of religiously and racially divided Rakhine state when the national election winning National League for Democracy picks the country's new president.

The Arakan National Party (ANP) is opposing a plan by the NLD to have its own ethnic minority members appointed as state chief ministers, including Rakhine state.

After winning an overwhelming majority party in the national parliament the NLD will get to pick Myanmar's next president — almost certainly from within its own ranks — who in turn will pick the chief minister for each of the country's 14 states.

The ANP, which represents Rakhine state's ethnic and mostly Buddhist majority, said it won a majority 22 seats in the state parliament following Nov. 8 local and national elections, which gave it the right to have one of their members as chief minister and to form a state government. The NLD only won nine seats in the poll. (Courtesy of ucanews.com)

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