Some Arakanese people in Yangon have complained that they were not able to cast ballots for the Arakanese (Rakhine) ethnic affairs minister post in Yangon Region. 

About 160 people were unable to vote in Sunday’s general election because their names were not included on the voter lists for seven polling stations in Sittwe Township’s Mingan Ward, according to political parties’ representatives at the respective polling locations.

Only an estimated 30% of some 10,300 eligible voters in Sittwe’s Mingan Ward cast ballots in Sunday’s general election, according to representatives of political parties who monitored the polls, with observers also reporting low turnout in Ann Township.

Hundreds of people from Zaichaung village in Kyaukphyu Township, Arakan State, have fled their homes as the military has carried out sweeping interrogations of local residents.  

Seventeen civil society organisations have called for legal action to be taken against human rights violators in Myanmar’s warring ethnic areas.

A local resident of Arakan State’s Manaung Township was killed in a road accident involving a National League for Democracy campaign caravan on Wednesday. The chairman of the township NLD chapter, U Than Wai, said the accident had nothing to do with the ruling party.

About 44,000 voters who are 60 years and older have cast advance votes in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu and Thandwe districts, according to figures from the respective district election subcommissions.

Myanmar’s Union Election Commission (UEC) has ruled that voters in Kyaukgyi village-tract of Arakan State’s Thandwe Township ought to vote again due to errors in advance voting procedures for the constituency’s Upper House seat, according to the Thandwe District election subcommission.

More than 300 advance votes in Sittwe Township’s Amyint Kyun village have been annulled following the discovery of stamping on ballot papers that was unauthorised.

People who are placed under observation at quarantine centres in Arakan State will lose their right to vote on Election Day, November 8, according to the relevant district election subcommissions. 

Ethnic Maramargree people residing in Arakan State say they need assistance as they face livelihood hardship amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mangrove reforestation efforts continue in Arakan State thanks to a US$5.5 million fund provided by the government of Denmark, according to an official from the Forest Department.

Four villagers from Panlinpyin in Sittwe Township, whom the military had taken away on November 3, arrived back safely to their homes around 6 p.m. on November 4, the detainees said.  

With just days until the vote, the Arakan Election Monitoring Committee is claiming that the upcoming elections in Arakan State will not be fair, with the group citing internet restrictions affecting several townships in the state’s north. 

Civil society organisations say they are finding it difficult to monitor so-called military polling stations in Arakan State ahead of the November 8 general election. 

A 64-year-old resident of Sanae town in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township was shot dead by the Tatmadaw on November 4 while he was out catching crabs, according to family members. 

The inclusion of Mrauk-U, an ancient cultural heritage zone in Arakan State, on the UNESCO World Heritage List continues to face delays due to COVID-19, according to Daw Ohnmar Myo, national project officer at UNESCO’s Myanmar office.  

Government spokesman U Zaw Htay has pushed back against preemptive critiques of Myanmar’s upcoming general election as unfair, speaking during a press conference held at the President’s Office in Naypyidaw on November 4.  

Monsoon paddy cannot be harvested as yet in some Arakan State townships plagued by fierce clashes, though the harvest is due.