Rights groups urge Myanmar to ensure voting rights of all Rohingyas ahead of Nov 8 polls

Fourteen Rohingya-led rights groups in Cox's Bazar have demanded that Myanmar ensure voting rights of all Rohingyas of voting age, including those in Bangladesh refugee camps, and their participation in the national elections slated for November 8.

The demand was made in an open letter to the Union Election Commission (UEC) of Myanmar by the Rohingya-led groups on Thursday.

Recently, the UEC of Myanmar barred at least five Rohingya men from competing in the upcoming elections. The commission disqualified four of them saying their parents were not Myanmar citizens when the candidates were born.

On July 2, the UEC announced that Myanmar nationals living abroad could cast advanced ballots in this year's general election. The government also provided absentee voting in the 2010 and 2015 elections.

Refugees elsewhere in the world have voted in home-country elections through voting stations in refugee camps and absentee ballots, said regional rights body Fortify Rights in a statement.

The 14 Roingya groups represent many of the 860,000 Rohingyas living in Cox's Bazar camps. Of them, some 750,000 fled a brutal military campaign in Rakhine State.

In the open letter, the Rohingya Women Empowerment and Advocacy Network, Rohingya Student Network, Rohingya Youth for Legal Action, Voice of Rohingya, and others, urged the UEC Chair Hla Thein and the Myanmar government to reverse the decisions that rejected Rohingya candidates running for office.

"All Rohingya should have the right to vote. We had the right to vote in all the elections held in Myanmar since 2010," said Shomima Bibi, founder and director of the Rohingya Women Education Initiative -- a camp-based refugee organisation supporting Rohingya women.

"Like before, we should have freedom and enjoy nationality and citizenship in Myanmar."

"I should have a right to participate in the elections of Myanmar. I want to see my country without discrimination," said Sawyedollah of the Rohingya Student Network in Bangladesh.  

Fortify Rights said Myanmar government currently has access to multiple forms of documentation of Rohingyas, including household lists dating back to the 1990s, National Verification Cards (NVCs), National Registration Cards, White Cards, White Card receipts, and other previous government-issued and UN-issued identity documents.

In collaboration with international humanitarian organisations, Myanmar government and the Myanmar embassy in Bangladesh could use these forms of documentation as well as alternative forms of evidence, such as testimonial evidence, to determine eligibility to vote in the November 8 elections and as evidence to restore citizenship of the Rohingyas, it said.

On August 25, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for Southeast Asia echoed calls coming from the Rohingya community, saying in a statement that "national elections scheduled for November provide Myanmar the opportunity to restore political rights to the Rohingya."

Myanmar has long denied Rohingya access to full citizenship rights, most recently through NVCs, which effectively identify Rohingyas as foreigners.

Fortify Rights said Myanmar should amend the 1982 Citizenship Law to bring it in line with international laws and standards and ensure equal access to full citizenship rights, regardless of ethnic identity, race, or religion.

"Rohingyas globally should have the right to vote and participate in their home country's political life," said Ismail Wolff, regional director of Fortify Rights.

"The international community should reignite their moral imagination and call for refugees' right to vote -- it is possible."