Opposition leader Suu Kyi votes in historic Myanmar polls

Yangon: Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi cast her vote Sunday in Myanmar’s election, in a landmark poll she hopes will see her National League for Democracy Party win a majority. Suu Kyi, wearing a red top and flowers in her hair, was mobbed by scores of journalists, while Myanmar voters shouted “victory, victory” as she was ushered from her car into the polling station. Myanmar’s multi-party general election began across the country on Sunday with 33.5 million eligible voters getting ready to cast votes at respective polling stations. In Yangon, the voters started queuing in front of the polling stations in respective townships one hour before the clock struck six for ballot casting, Xinhua reported. [caption id=“attachment_2497462” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) set up a stage outside the main train station ahead of a rally in Yangon. AFP[/caption] The 2015 general election is the second in Myanmar after the previous military government handed over the state power to a civilian government in 2011 through the first election in 2010. The election is being held under the secret polling system and closely monitored by more than 10,000 local and international observers. A total of 6,038 candidates from 91 political parties and 310 independents are competing for more than 1,000 seats at three levels of the parliament in the election. Of the total, 1,733 candidates are to run for seats of the House of Representatives (Lower House), 886 for the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 3,419 for Region or State Parliament. The Union Election Commission designated 1,150 constituencies for the vote at three levels of the parliament across the country. Of them, 323 constituencies will be contested for the House of Representatives, 168 for the House of Nationalities, 630 for the Region or State Parliament and 29 for ethnic representatives. Competitively strong parties go to the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), led by U Htay Oo, and the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi. USDP fed 1,122 candidates, while NLD fielded 1,123 for the run for seats at all three levels of the parliament. NLD chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi will compete in Yangon region’s Kawhmu township constituency for a seat of House of Representatives and she was also signified by her first ever personal vote casting in her residential constituency of Bahan township in Yangon. With inputs from AFP and IANS