Factbox-Myanmar’s election in numbers

Dec 24 (Reuters) – Myanmar will hold the first round of voting in a general election on Sunday in what its military government says will usher in a return to civilian rule following a 2021 coup. 

Following are facts and figures on elections in Myanmar: 

– 4 national elections have been held in Myanmar in the past 35 years, but only two – in 2010 and 2015 – resulted in the formation of elected governments. The 2020 election was annulled by a military junta, as was a 1990 ballot – 20 years after it took place and was ignored.    

– 4,963 candidates have registered for this election.

– 6 parties will take part nationwide and 51 will vie for seats in a single region or state.

– 40 parties were dissolved in 2023 for failing to register for the election, including the former ruling National League for Democracy, whose government was ousted in 2021.

– 1,018, or one-fifth the candidates running, are from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party 

– 2 rounds of voting are scheduled – December 28 and January 11 – with the possibility of another a few weeks later.

– 202 of Myanmar’s 330 townships will hold voting in the first two rounds. It is unclear when the rest will be contested, with a civil war raging in many areas. No dates have been set for counting of votes or announcement of results. 

– 664 seats are available in the bicameral parliament, with 440 in the lower house and 224 in the upper house. 

– 25 percent of seats in both chambers are allocated to serving military personnel appointed by the armed forces chief, a quota set out in the 2008 constitution under Myanmar’s quasi-civilian political system.  

– 90 days is the period after the election when a new parliament must convene. Its members will choose speakers, then later elect a president as head of state, who then forms a government.

(Compiled by Martin Petty; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)