Myanmar’s parliament has voted down a powerful nationalist ethnic party’s proposal for an urgent citizenship verification process for Muslims in troubled Rakhine State, state media reported Saturday.
The proposal, under which more than half the undocumented Muslims in Rakhine and other regions could have been eligible for citizen status, received 154 votes in favor and 228 against, with seven abstentions, in the lower house, according to the Myanmar Ahlin newspaper.
Khin Saw Wai of the Arakan National Party (ANP) had earlier told Anadolu Agency that once granted citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Act, the Muslims -- many of whom have been living in internally displaced persons camps since 2012 -- would be free to leave Rakhine, where they were subject to violence. (Courtesy of thepeninsulaqatar.com)
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