ICC Note:

Ethnic minority Christian candidates are running for upper house seats in Myanmar upcoming elections. Christian ethnic groups are highly persecuted by Myanmar’s government. For some ethnic groups, ethnic lines are also religious lines, with an estimates 90+ percent of Kachin people professing to the Christians. This is troublesome, as this is also a people group that many separatists come from. Fighting between the government and these separatists quite often spills over into civilian villages, and the government has targeted and destroyed scores of churches in this region. For the Kachin to gain representation in the upper house may help give them a voice and reduce persecution for Christians in Myanmar.

3/31/2017 Myanmar (UCA News) – Minority ethnic politicians from Myanmar’s Christian-majority states of Chin and Kayah have pinned their hopes on winning upper house seats in the country’s by-elections to be held April 1.

Pi Za Tlem, a Christian and a former lawmaker who lost her seat in the 2015 national election, will contest the Htangtalang township election in Chin State on behalf of the Chin National Democratic Party.

Salai Ceu Bik Thawng, general secretary of the Chin National Democratic Party, said it was very important for his ethnic-based party to take a seat, as more ethnic representation is needed in the union parliament.

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