Myanmar Flooding won't change election schedule

Naypyitaw: Myanmar's general election will be held as planned on Nov. 8 despite a proposal by the election commission that it be delayed because of recent landslides and flooding, state media said Tuesday.

Union Election Commission Chairman Tin Aye had proposed in a meeting with political parties earlier Tuesday that the parliamentary election be postponed either nationwide or in some areas hit by monsoon rains.

The opposition National League for Democracy party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which is expected to do well in the polls, said it was against a delay.

Government officials met later Tuesday with the election commission and decided that a delay would cause a variety of problems, officials said. State media then announced that the balloting would go ahead as planned.

The general election is to be followed by a presidential election early next year when the army and the elected members of parliament will nominate a total of three candidates, and then all lawmakers will vote for the president.

Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation, began moving from a half-century of military rule toward democracy in 2011 when a nominally civilian government, led by a pro-military party, took office. Though there are many concerns including the exclusion of ethnic Rohingya Muslims from the process and irregularities in voting lists - most observers believe the upcoming elections are the country's best chance in decades for relatively free and credible polls.

If the elections are credible, most observers believe Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy will win the most seats in parliament, and could even control a majority by forming a coalition with smaller parties.