Image Credit: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters
Race + Color + Ethnicity

Myanmar News | Ethnic Minorities

Myanmar’s ethnic minorities organize as landmark elections near
  • Groups of ethnic minorities across Myanmar have worried as Aung Saan Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, favored to lead in the Nov. 8 elections, have run candidates in ethnic strongholds favored by the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD).
  • Ethnic parties seek to establish a presence in the Burmese parliament to counteract longstanding persecution of minorities in the country, particularly in the border state of Shan.
  • The NLD has prioritized defeating the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), while ethnic parties hope to use to their advantage the winning party’s need for their support to form a government.

Read more:
“Burma’s Ethnic Minorities Seek Equality and Greater Autonomy in Landmark Elections” (TIME)
“Myanmar’s Ethnic Parliamentarians May Be 2016’s ‘Kingmakers’” (The Diplomat)
“Myanmar’s ethnic minorities pin hopes on election to end decades of bloodshed” (AP via Fox News)

(Image Credit: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)