Candidates The registration period for candidates was from 20 July to 7 August 2020, and the UEC received 7,026 applications. On 30 August, the commission announced that 6,969 candidates had been approved to run in the elections, including 6,689 from 92 political parties and 280 independents. However, with the dissolution of the UDP and other withdrawals or rejections of candidacies, that number subsequently decreased to 5,643 candidates vying for seats in the 2020 general elections. 902 candidates, or 16% of the total, were women, a slight increase from 13% in 2015. Although some candidates’ rejections were made on procedural grounds, such as false information on the application forms, others related to the applicants’ parents not being both Myanmar citizens at the time of their birth 70. Myanmar’s 1982 citizenship law is notoriously discriminatory, as it ties one person’s citizenship status to her membership of one of the recognised “national races” (thaingyintha) 71. As in 2015, rejections based on citizenship grounds, while ostensibly following the letter of the law, seemed to disproportionately affect Muslim candidates. Indeed, all six Muslim candidates in Rakhine state, five from the Democracy and Human Rights Party (DHRP) and one independent, were disqualified by district-level election sub-commissions. The first five, including DHRP chair U Kyaw Min, who ran and won a seat in the 1990 elections, saw their candidacies denied in August 72, while the last one, U Aye Win of Maungdaw township, was disqualified on October 2, well into the campaign period, after having initially been approved and issued a certificate of candidacy 73. All dismissed DHRP candidates filed unsuccessful appeals with the Rakhine and national election commissions. Similar decisions were taken against an independent Rohingya candidate in Ayeyarwady region 74, an independent Muslim candidate in Mon state 75, and a Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS) candidate, also Muslim, in Yangon’s Thingangyun township. While there were also non-Muslim candidates to be disqualified for similar reasons, for instance a People’s Pioneer Party (PPP) candidate in Yangon’s North Dagon township 76 and a USDP candidate in Kayah state 77, evidence seems to sustain the claim made by numerous stakeholders interviewed by ANFREL that election and citizenship laws were once again jointly used to suppress the fundamental rights of Myanmar citizens who are Muslim and/or Rohingya to stand for elective office and participate in their country’s public affairs. In an unrelated case in Rakhine state, an incumbent Pyithu Hluttaw MP from the Arakan National Party (ANP) also saw his candidacy, which was originally approved, rescinded because of his son’s alleged role in the Arakan Army (AA) ethnic armed organization. This decision, which was reportedly imposed on the Kyaukpyu district sub-commission by the national-level UEC 78, ran contrary to the 70 Articles 8(b) and 10(e) of the Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law, Amyotha Hluttaw Election Law, and Region Hluttaw or State Hluttaw Election Law 71 https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Myanmar-Citizenship-law-reform-Advocacy-Analysis-Brief2019-ENG.pdf 72 https://www.bnionline.net/en/news/dhrp-appeal-against-rejection-its-muslim-candidates 73 https://www.bnionline.net/en/news/muslim-candidates-bid-voided-late-stage-election-commission-reversal 74 https://www.fortifyrights.org/mya-inv-2020-08-19/ 75 https://www.bnionline.net/en/news/mon-state-election-commission-rejects-independent-candidate 76 https://news-eleven.com/article/195435 77 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/disqualified-candidates-10142020175119.html 78 https://www.irrawaddy.com/elections/rejected-candidate-myanmars-rakhine-state-says-hes-bullied-offballot.html 30