YANGON, Nov 14 : Myanmar's diverse ethnic minority parties were counting their losses on Saturday after Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party won a landslide victory in historic polls.
Parties representing Myanmar's myriad ethnic minority groups have emerged as major losers in the vote, taking just 10 percent of seats in the combined parliament and losing out to the NLD even in regional legislatures.
Myanmar is a patchwork of ethnic identities with over 130 officially-recognised minority groups, many with distinct languages and cultures.
The ANP -- Arakan is another word for Rakhine -- is one of the strongest ethnic minority parties in parliament.
It is the voice of nationalist Buddhists in its volatile state, where religious clashes in 2012 left scores dead and displaced tens of thousands of minority Rohingya Muslims.
The party was confident of a clean sweep in Rakhine -- after a shock move by the government earlier this year stripped around half a million Rohingya of their voting rights -- but has secured only 15 seats so far. ?AFP