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.

A man is believed dead after being shot in Minbya Township’s Myitnadone Chaung village on November 3, according to family members of the deceased. 

A woman was seriously injured after stepping on a landmine and two men were reportedly shot by the Tatmadaw in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U District over the past two days.

Military personnel in Arakan State arrested two residents of Ramree Township and four people from Sittwe Township on November 3, saying they were being detained for further questioning, according to locals. 

With fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army approaching its unofficial two-year mark, the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State has surpassed 236,000, according to figures from the Rakhine Ethnics Congress.