The Union Election Commission (UEC) on Wednesday instructed political parties to submit lists of parliamentary candidates for the general election no later than 8 August.

The commission announced on Wednesday that national polls will be held on 8 November this year, the first general election since 2010.

State media on Thursday carried a further announcement stating that parties can begin submitting candidate lists starting on 20 July but closing on 8 August. The UEC said that parties could then have until 11 August to make withdrawals, before the commission undertakes the task of checking and ratifying the respective lists between 12 and 21 August.

The UEC also announced that senior government officials can begin campaigning for the election immediately. The message, also carried in state media on Thursday, said that ministers, deputy-ministers, the chief justice, supreme court judges, the chairman and members of the union constitution tribunal, the attorney-general and deputy attorney-general, the auditor-general and deputy auditor-general, the civil services board chairman and its members may begin campaigning for the elections starting from 8 July.

[related]

The commission said it will issue an announcement authorising campaign rallies after all parliamentary candidates have been approved.

Meanwhile, in his monthly radio address to the nation on Thursday morning, Burma’s President Thein Sein reaffirmed his pledge to ensure that this year’s general election is “clean, free and fair”.

“As the first civilian government in many years, we have a responsibility and we promise to try our best to ensure that the upcoming general election is clean, free and fair,” said Thein Sein.

Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, or NLD, chaired by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has said that it will declare this weekend whether or not it will take part in the election.