Officials from several national and regional-level political parties told DVB that the regime in Naypyidaw approved only one-fourth of the budget submitted by its Union Election Commission (UEC) for the general elections announced by Min Aung Hlaing to begin this December.
Sai Htay Aung, the chairperson of the Tai-Leng Nationalities Development Party, told DVB that the budget was meant for setting up “electronic voting machines and ballot stations” in all constituencies.
But the UEC has yet to announce the number of constituencies, candidate criteria, or the exact timeline of when the elections will take place.
There were 330 constituencies for the Lower House, 168 constituencies for the Upper House, 644 constituencies for state and regional parliaments, as well as 29 constituencies for ethnic minorities in these parliaments during the 2020 general elections.
Kyaw Swar Soe, the chairperson of the Myanmar Farmers Development Party, told DVB that the UEC informed them to prepare candidates for around 100 constituencies nationwide.
The regime said it would use data from its 2024 census for its planned elections, which included only 145 townships. In the remaining 185 townships, only partial data was collected in 127 while no data was collected at all in 58.
A total of 54 political parties have registered to contest the elections, with only 10 — including the pro-regime Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) — planning to field candidates nationwide in all constituencies, according to the UEC.
