The Arakan Army (AA) has claimed responsibility for detaining three National League for Democracy (NLD) candidates in Rakhine state last week and has offered to release them if the government frees anti-war activists.

About ten AA soldiers arrived by boat on October 14 at a village where the candidates were preparing to campaign and snatched them away. 

In a statement published on Monday evening the group said it would release the three if the NLD government freed “politicians, students and innocent people… who have been arrested and detained unlawfully for demanding peace.” 

“Our POWs swap policy remains intact,” it added. 

Earlier this month two student activists were sentenced to five years in prison for protesting against the military’s attacks in Rakhine state. Two others received sentences of between one month and one year. 

The three detained NLD candidates are: Min Aung, who is defending his seat in the state parliament, Ni Ni May Myint, who is defending her lower house seat, and Chit Chit Chaw, who is competing for an upper house seat.

Min Aung is also the former Rakhine state minister for municipal affairs. 

The AA said in its statement that the three detained candidates were “crooked”. 

“They have been summoned and brought to testify, and will be detained and investigated as required by circumstances till a certain time,” the statement said.  

It added that the NLD was “firmly standing by the Burmese facist army” and “collaborating and covering up war crimes.”

Myo Nyunt, the NLD's spokesperson, said that the individuals the AA had called on the government to release were not the prisoners of war.

"Those individuals were charged lawfully and got their right to defend at trials. Judges prosecuted with their conscience after hearing both sides and put them in prison because they broke laws," he told Myanmar Now. 

"It is absolutely inappropriate to arrest our members and ask for an exchange of people who are not even POWs. We demand the immediate release of our candidates without exception," he added.

The government has repeatedly said it is pursuing peace in Rakhine and has labelled the AA a terrorist organisation. 

Min Aung’s wife, Mya Wutyi, told Myanmar Now last week that she had been told the armed men beat her husband before taking him away.  

“My husband is working in the interests of the people, and supporting the needs of the people in parliament in a peaceful way,” she said. 

In November last year the AA detained NLD MP Hawi Tin in Chin state, and then released him in January.  

The Union Election Commission (UEC) announced on Friday that it would be suspending the election in nine of Rakhine’s 17 townships because of the conflict.

The move, which was widely anticipated, has raised questions about the fairness of next month’s election. Election-related violence, much of it targeting the NLD, has also plagued other parts of the country, 

So far, the NLD government has vowed to go ahead with voting despite concerns from opposition parties about disenfranchised voters in conflict zones and a recent surge in Covid-19 cases