Aye Maung barred from running for office

Aye Maung barred from running for office
(File ) Dr Aye Maung (C), Ann Township MP and former Arakan National Party leader, speaks to the media while being escorted out of court by police officers after his hearing at Sittwe court in Sittwe, Myanmar, 06 March 2019. Photo: Nyunt Win/EPA

Myanmar’s Union Election Commission (UEC) has stripped jailed Rakhine politician Aye Maung of his status as a Lower House member of parliament and barred him from running for office, citing his conviction on charges of treason, RFA reported.

The UEC said in an announcement dated May 18 and published on Wednesday that Aye Maung’s imprisonment negated his role representing Rakhine state’s An township in the Union Parliament and that by losing his seat due to a treason conviction, he could no longer take part in elections for any legislature in the country, based on Article 11(d) and Article 88(a) of the Lower House Election Law, respectively.

Aye Maung, the former chairman of the Arakan National Party (ANP), and author Wai Hin Aung were arrested in January 2018 after giving speeches at a public event in in Rakhine’s Rathedaung township commemorating the anniversary of the fall in 1784 of the Arakan Kingdom to the Burmese.