Myanmar cancels holding of by-election at year-end

Myanmar's Union Election Commission announced here Sunday cancellation of the upcoming second by- election originally scheduled for the end of this year.

Chairman of the commission U Tin Aye made the announcement after meeting with dozens of Yangon-based political parties at the Myanmar Peace Center, saying that the cancellation of the by- election is due to coincidence of the upcoming ASEAN Summit to be hosted by Myanmar in November this year as well as the then ongoing parliament session.

U Tin Aye, however, reiterated that the general election will be held at the near-end of 2015, possibly in November as planned.

Political parties attending the meeting summoned by the commission expressed no objection to the decision of the commission.

The by-election was scheduled to be held for 35 open parliamentary seats at three levels of the parliament, namely 13 at the House of Representatives (Lower House), 6 at the House of Nationalities (Upper House) and 16 at Region or State Parliament.

These seats are vacant in constituencies in Kachin, Rakhine, Shan, Yangon, Tanintharyi and Mandalay states or regions.

Myanmar last held its general election on Nov. 7, 2010, when the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won the majority votes with its Chairman U Thein Sein elected as the country's president to lead the civilian government after five decades' military rule.

On April 1, 2012, a by-election, which was the first, was held in which the opposition party, the National League for Democracy ( NLD), won 43 out of 45 then open parliamentary seats with its chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi occupying a seat of House of Representatives (Lower House).