Myanmar to set 2,000 polling stations for coming by-election

Myanmar's Union Election Commission will set 2,000 polling stations for the country's by-election scheduled for April 1, according to the commission Thursday.

The by-election, the first in the new government tenure, will allow for campaigning for 60 days starting from Jan. 30.

The by-election aims at filling the 19 vacant parliamentary seats, some of which were left after parliament members were appointed as government cabinet ministers, while other vacancies were left as some constituencies failed to hold the polling in the last general election in 2015.

A total of 95 candidates including 16 women from 24 political parties and seven individuals will compete in the by-election.

The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and the former ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), now led by U Than Htay, will be the two parties which send the most number of candidates for the by-election, of whom USDP takes 19 while NLD 18.

Of the total 19 vacant parliamentary seats available in 22 townships in eight regions and state, nine are with the House of Representatives (Lower House), three with the House of Nationalities (Upper House) and seven with the state parliaments.

Election results or names of those winning parliamentarians-elect will be announced within the next four days following the by-election.

In the Nov. 8 general election in 2015, the NLD won an absolute majority of 255 seats or 79 percent with the House of Representatives, 135 or 80 percent with the House of Nationalities and 475 or 75.7 percent with the Region or State Parliament as well as 21 ethnic representatives to the Region or State Parliaments.

source: Xinhua