Hawzah News Agency - Rights groups have criticized the move, saying it is part of the larger discrimination against the Rohingya minority Muslims in the country.

A Rohingya Muslim has been barred from standing in Myanmar's upcoming election in a decision decried by rights groups as discriminatory and a symptom of the "ongoing genocide" against the persecuted minority.

Three Rohingya-led parties had hoped to field at least a dozen candidates in November's vote, according to regional watchdog Fortify Rights.

But Abdul Rasheed, 58, a member of the Democracy and Human Rights Party, said that his candidacy was rejected by the district election commission in Rakhine state capital Sittwe.

'Not in line with law'

The commission said this was because his parents were not Myanmar citizens when he was born, Rasheed said – even though he had proof his parents and grandparents were granted citizenship in 1957, four years before his birth.

"This is not in line with the law," he said, adding he would appeal the decision.

"The Rohingya are being degraded so we cannot compete."

Sittwe's election commission was not immediately available to comment.

Rights ignored

The Muslim minority has had citizenship and other rights eroded over decades.

Rasheed, who said his father worked as a Myanmar government civil servant for more than 30 years, also tried without success to stand in the country's landmark 2015 election.

"This rejection is discriminatory and not unrelated to the ongoing genocide of Rohingya," said Matthew Smith from Fortify Rights, a group for which Rasheed also consults.

"The government of Myanmar must end its mass disenfranchisement of Rohingya."