More than 1.2 million people in Arakan State will miss out on the chance to vote in this year’s general election due to a Union Election Commission (UEC) announcement last week detailing constituencies where the polls will not be held.  

Five allied ethnic political parties have decried the Union Election Commission’s recent announcement on constituencies where voting will not take place for the upcoming general election. 

Lawmakers have warned that cancelled elections could widen the conflict arena in Arakan State as voters in the affected townships are deprived of parliamentary politics as an avenue for political expression and recourse.

The detainees have been identified as U Kyaw Min Aung, 32, and U Htay Lwin, 33, from Paletwa’s Paloketaung ward. They were arrested at about 5 p.m. on Sunday on their way from Yaytinkhun village to Paletwa carrying commodities, Paletwa resident U Aung Aung said. 

The Arakan Army (AA) issued a press release on October 19 saying it was responsible for the abduction of three National League for Democracy (NLD) candidates contesting the upcoming general election in Taungup Township, Arakan State.

Three student activists and a supporter were arrested after they staged an anti-war demonstration in the Arakan State capital Sittwe on October 19. 

A primary school assistant teacher was killed when an artillery shell exploded near Ywa Thit Kay village in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township on October 19, the mother of the victim told DMG. 

An 8-year-old boy was killed and his parents were injured when an artillery shell landed and exploded in Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, on October 19, according to residents.  

The majority of homes in Rathedaung Township’s Aung Thazi village were damaged or destroyed by artillery fire amid fierce clashes last week between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army, according to local villagers. 

Eight election signboards erected by the Arakan National Party (ANP) across Arakan State were destroyed over the first 40 days of the general election’s official campaign period, according to the ANP election campaign committee.

The Chin State government has said it will sell rice at low prices to residents in Paletwa Township, according to a cabinet official.

Sittwe General Hospital in the Arakan State capital is facing a shortage of oxygen for patients as it has been increasingly called upon as a coronavirus treatment.

The chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Taungup Township wants an answer from the Arakan Army (AA) as to whether the ethnic armed group’s members were behind the recent abduction of three of the party’s candidates.

The UN-led Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting on grave violations against children (CTFMR) has called for a prompt investigation into the deaths of two children amid hostilities between the military and Arakan Army (AA) on October 5 in Buthidaung Township. 

An internally displaced person sheltering at an IDP camp in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township has been arrested by police for allegedly violating local curfew orders, according to family members of the detainee. 

Three residents of Sanae village in Ann Township, Arakan State, who were recently arrested by the Tatmadaw were transferred to the Ann Myoma police station after five days in military custody, according to family members of the detainees.

One of four people injured in the recent shelling of a village in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township died on Thursday evening while receiving treatment at Sittwe General Hospital. 

The 10 ethnic armed group signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) have urged the warring parties in Arakan State to solve their problems through political means to reduce armed conflict in Myanmar’s west. 

More than 500 civil society groups across Myanmar have urged President U Win Myint to reconsider going forward as planned with elections scheduled for November 8 as the country continues to grapple with the twin crises of resurgent COVID-19 and ongoing conflict in Arakan State.