YANGON, 22 September 2105: Â A total of 6,074 qualified candidates will run the upcoming Nov. 8 general election in 1,171 constituencies nationwide in Myanmar, said an announcement of the Union Election Commission Monday following the finalization of the candidate list.The 6,074 approved candidates include 5,764 nominated from 91 political parties and 310 independents.
The approved candidates were shortlisted from 6,189 nominees originally enlisted. Of them, 39 withdrew from the list themselves, while 75 were disqualified by the commission in scrutiny and one died before the announcement. Of the 6,074 candidates, 1,745 are to run in constituencies for the House of Representatives (Lower House), 886 for the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 3,443 for Region or State Parliament.
The commission designated 1,163 constituencies for the vote at four levels of the parliament across the country. Of them, 330 constituencies will be contested for the Lower House, 168 for the Upper House, 636 for the Region or State Parliament and 29 for national race representatives. Of the 5,764 political party candidates, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), led by U Htay Oo, and the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, top the number of candidates with 1,130 each.
Of the 1,130 USDP candidates, 317 will contest for seats in the House of Representatives (Lower House), 164 in the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 620 in the Region or State Parliament and 29 for ethnic representatives.
Of the 1,130 NLD candidates, 318 will seek seats with the Lower House, 163 with the Upper House, 620 with the Region or State Parliament and 29 for ethnic representatives.
Following the two leading parties are the National Unity Party (NUP), the National Development Party (NDP) and the National Democratic Force (NDF) in terms of the number of candidates fed for the election. There are 32 million eligible voters in the country, according to the commission. Meanwhile, radio and TV campaign by political parties began on Sept. 8 and will last until Nov. 6, two days before the planned election kicks off . In the 2010 general election participated by 3,071 candidates from 37 political parties, the USDP won the then election without the participation of the opposition. However, in the by-elections, NLD won 43 out of 45 open parliamentary seats.
