Myanmar is pulling out all the stops to hold national elections next month in the face of surging coronavirus infections, with leader Aung San Suu Kyi saying the country is receiving daily imports of protective gear from China and election authorities adding polling stations to ease crowds in populous areas.
With 12 days to go before the Nov. 8 elections, the number of confirmed COVID cases in Myanmar hit 47,666 on Tuesday, including 1,466 new cases, and 1,147 total deaths. The spike has prompted calls from some political parties to postpone voting in populous areas and hotspots, including the commercial capital Yangon.
Aung San Suu Kyi, seeking reelection after winning the previous national vote in 2015, recently reassured the public that the government is doing all it can so the elections can be held safely amid the pandemic, saying that shipments of protective gear are arriving from neighboring China every day.
“We have planned to distribute these protective materials to all needed locations throughout the country,” she said during a public broadcast Monday evening on state-run MRTV.
In full: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/voter-safety-10272020185339.html
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