This weekend, Burma will hold one of its most significant elections in recent history.
In the last open election held in Burma Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won an overwhelming majority of seats in Parliament which prompted the military dictatorship governing the country at that time to nullify the election results. Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest following the overturning of the elections for 15 years and is barred from holding the presidency of Burma. That said she hasn't acquitted herself over the issue of Muslim's running or voting in the election which is scheduled for this Sunday.
Myanmar's 'Muslim-free' election
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi "purged" opposition of Muslims ahead of election, senior party member tells Al Jazeera.
Myanmar's main opposition party, led by the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, deliberately bypassed Muslim candidates ahead of the November election, a senior party member told Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source said Suu Kyi ordered an "Islamic purge" in the National League for Democracy (NLD) to appease growing anti-Muslim sentiment fuelled by hardline Buddhist nationalists.
Not one of the NLD's 1,151 candidates standing for regional and national elections is Muslim, despite there being around five million Muslims - or between 4 and 10 percent of the population - in the country.
There are also no Muslim candidates in the military-backed, governing Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) running in what has been billed as the country's first free and fair general election in 25 years.
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