No clean sweep: Ethnic parties expected to deny unanimous opposition victory

Myanmar

29 October 2015

Myanmar Times - Ethnic parties are stepping up the heat in Shan State, where they say their candidacy should not be discounted by the country’s two largest political parties.

In September, a report by the Transnational Institute on the ethnic political landscape of 2015 concluded that with so many nationality-based parties jostling for a greater legislative role, their failure to coordinate before the polls will cost them.

“If nationality parties had coalesced or agreed not to stand against each other, their number of seats could have been boosted,” the institute’s report said.

“The choice for a voter is easy if there is only one party in their constituency representing their ethnicity, as will be the case, for example, for Rakhine voters in many Rakhine State constituencies where the main Rakhine parties have merged,” it added.

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Ethnic Conflict in Myanmar