Rohingya politicians excluded from Myanmar's upcoming election

They will not be able to stand as candidates because officials accuse them of having foreign roots, news agency Al Jazeera reported

Aspiring politician Abdul Rasheed was born in Myanmar and is one of very few majority-Muslim Rohingya to have Myanmar citizenship. His father was a civil servant. But when the country goes to the polls in November, the businessman will not be able to stand as a candidate because officials accuse him of having foreign roots, news agency Al Jazeera reported.

Rasheed is among at least a dozen Rohingya with Myanmar citizenship who have applied to be candidates in the November 8 general election, hoping to get into politics under the new democratic government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Six of them had been rejected after officials said they failed to prove their parents were citizens at the time of their birth, a requirement under the election law.