YANGON (MYANMAR) – Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi cast a ballot on Thursday in the capital Naypyitaw before November’s election. She was unable to travel to her registered township near Yangon because of restrictions to contain a spike in coronavirus cases.
Despite opposition parties urging the government to postpone the election because of rising infections, Suu Kyi, who is the chair of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, has said the Nov. 8 election must go ahead.
She voted at a polling station in the administrative capital, and President Win Myint also voted earlier.
The vote is set to serve as a test of Myanmar’s first democratic government in half a century.
With nearly 50,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 1,000 deaths, Myanmar is facing one of Southeast Asia’s worst outbreaks.
Suu Kyi’s international reputation has been affected over Myanmar’s treatment of Rohingya Muslims.
Polls across most of conflict-hit Rakhine have been cancelled by Myanmar’s electoral body, which reported violence