After five years without a single Muslim MP, Myanmar is in need of someone to help fight for the rights of oppressed minorities, says Sithu Maung as he celebrates his election to parliament.
The 33-year-old was one of just two Muslims out of more than 1,100 candidates for Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party — up from zero in the last election in 2015.
Muslims number about four percent of the national population and suffer particularly high levels of discrimination.
Sithu Maung sensed victory was on the cards after seeing voters’ reactions to him at the polling station, but was overwhelmed to scoop up a decisive 80 percent of the vote in his downtown Yangon constituency.❐
