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Myanmar president yet to decide competing in upcoming general election: official

Xinhua, July 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Myanmar President U Thein Sein has not decided yet if he will compete in the upcoming general election slated for Nov. 8 to seek re-election of the presidency, the President's Office told Xinhua on Tuesday.

U Thein Sein will personally announce his decision based on his own desire and that of the people as well as the situation of the country , Director of the President's Office U Zaw Htay said.

U Thein Sein once did recommend in his letter to the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) leadership another member to compete in the constituency, in which he competed in the last general election in 2010, he said.

A senior member of the USDP, Thura U Aung Ko, also told Xinhua that if U Thein Sein does not compete as a candidate representing the party, he can still have the chance to be directly nominated by the military as a candidate for presidential run.

U Thein Sein, who was then USDP chairman, won a parliamentary seat of the House of Representative in the 2010 general election as a USDP candidate, and won the presidential run in February 2011.

U Thein Sein formed the first civilian government on March 30, 2011 after the military transferred the state power.

Meanwhile, the Union Election Commission has urged political parties to submit the list of their respective nominated parliamentary candidates in terms of levels of the parliament and constituencies from July 20 to Aug. 8 to compete in the election and approval will be made on the candidates after scrutiny.

The commission 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 the election of the House of Representatives (Lower House), 168 constituencies for the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 644 constituencies for Region or State Parliaments and 29 constituencies for Region or State Parliaments for National Races.

According to the commission, there are so far 86 registered political parties in Myanmar and each of them is set to compete at least in three constituencies according to the Election Law.

The 2015 general election is to produce parliamentary representatives to the next term of parliament which will form a new government in early 2016. Endi