YANGON, Nov 8 – Myanmar’s general election ended peacefully in the whole country Sunday, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. Polling stations closed at 4pm local times (5.30pm Malaysian time) and was followed by open counting of votes in the presence of contesting candidates, local and international observers and the public. The Union Election Commission said it will officially release the election results starting Monday stage by stage.
In Sunday’s election, 33.5 million eligible voters cast votes at more than 46,000 polling stations nationwide which opened at 6am local times (7.30am Malaysian time). Government leaders, parliament speakers, military leaders and party leaders were among those who enthusiastically cast their votes at respective polling booths scattered in constituencies across the nation.
A total of 6,038 candidates involving 91 political parties and 310 independent runners competed for more than 1,000 seats at three levels of the parliament in the election. Of the total, 1,733 candidates ran for seats of the House of Representatives (Lower House), 886 for the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 3,419 for Region or State Parliament.
