First published on PACE's website on 1 November 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hugely affected the campaign period in Myanmar, according to the preliminary report of the election observation of the People's Alliance for Credible Elections - PACE.

In Yangon and Rakhine where the stay-at-home order was enforced in the entire region and state, no campaign activities took place before November 1.

PACE said that most of the rallies they observed enforced COVID-19 guidelines such as wearing of face masks and observing social distancing among attendees. There were, however, some rallies attended by more than 100 people.

Among the common complaints the sub-commission UECs received were campaign rallies not meeting COVID-19 guidelines and complaints related to violence.

The abduction of three National League for Democracy candidates in Rakhine State was the biggest security-related incident during this election. Some other incident include clash between supporters, destroyed campaign materials, and disturbing campaign activities.

Myanmar is set to hold general elections on 8 November 2020. PACE deployed 319 long-term observers to 319 townships to observe the elections. Due to the delay of their accreditation, PACE was only able to start its LTO training on September 14 and deployed them on September 28.

Read the full report here: English | Burmese