Myanmar cancels elections in sensitive areas

Myanmar's Union Election Commission on Tuesday decided that elections would not be held in some sensitive areas deemed as being impossible to do so in a free and fair manner.

These areas include 212 village-tracts in Kachin state, 94 village-tracts in Kayin state, 41 village-tracts in Bago region, one village-tract in Mon state and five townships and 56 village-tracts in Shan state, Xinhua news agency quoted the commission as saying.

The general election will start on November 8.

The commission designated 1,163 constituencies for the vote at four levels of the parliament across the country.

Of them, 330 constituencies are set for contest for the House of Representatives (Lower House), 168 for the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 636 for the Region or State Parliament and 29 for the national race.

There are 35 million eligible voters in the Southeast Asian country, according to chairman of the commission U Tin Aye.

A total of 41,000 polling booths will be put into use across the country, with 5,504 in Yangon region.