Myanmar election commission invites registration of parliamentary candidates

Myanmar's Union Election Commission Wednesday invited registration of parliamentary candidates to contest in the upcoming general election in terms of levels of the parliament and constituencies after formally announcing holding the multi-party general election on November 8.

The date of starting acceptance of the parliamentary candidate registration is set for July 20 and the registration will close on August 8.

The commission also set August 11 as a deadline for those who want to withdraw the candidates.

The upcoming election is to choose representatives to the next term of the parliament, which will form a new government with a five-year term next year.

The commission, which is compiling the basic voters list for the election, has designated a total of 1,171 constituencies across the country for the vote at four levels of parliament representatives with 330 constituencies set for election of the House of Representatives (Lower House), 168 constituencies for the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 644 constituencies for Region or State Parliament and 29 constituencies for Region or State Parliaments for National Races.

According to the commission, there are 83 registered political parties in Myanmar and each of them is set to compete at least in three constituencies.

The commission said that it will invite international observers to monitor the polls, but they will be restricted to designated areas.

The current term of the government which started from March 2011 is to expire in March 2016. Endi