Rohingya politicians excluded from Myanmar election
Aspiring politician Abdul Rasheed was born in Myanmar.
His father was a civil servant.
But Rasheed's name won't be on the ballot in November because officials accuse him of having foreign roots.
And he's not alone, he's among a half-dozen candidates who have been rejected -- all of them, Muslim Rohingya.
Officials say Rasheed's parents weren't citizens when he was born, despite documents that Rasheed says prove his case.
In Myanmar they do not recognise the term Rohingya or the community as an indigenous ethnic group.
"This is a pension letter of my father. This is updated ID for my mother. They rejected me even though I have submitted the (candidacy) form with all required documents. I don't know what the matter is and I can't find any answer."
The citizenship cards of his parents -- called National Registration Cards -- were abruptly withdrawn in the 1990s and replaced with temporary "white cards".
And then in 2015 with a stroke of the pen, former President Thein Sein nullified the cards stripping the Rohingya of their right to vote.
Successive military governments that ruled Myanmar took away the Rohingya's identity documents, leaving many with no proof of their origins.
Rasheed hoped an election win for Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party would in time see Rohingya rights recognized, but he has had his dreams crushed again:
"Now, it is a democratic government and I had certain hopes with Aung San Suu Kyi. The 2020 election is under her democratic government and I had hoped the policy would be amended and there wouldn't be any discrimination. We thought that we would be accepted as well. But that's not the case."
Of at least a dozen Rohingya candidates that have applied, six have already been rejected, all of them hoping for a chance under Suu Kyi's democratic government.
Analysts say the polls on November 8th are an important test of the transition away from direct military rule.
But more than 730,000 were forced to flee from Myanmar in 2017 after a military crackdown that the U.N said was carried out with genocidal intent.
Rights groups say the disqualification of Rohingya candidates demonstrates the limits of reform in the country.
