"Myanmar’s election authority has announced that political parties will continue to be barred from campaigning inside military cantonments ahead of this year’s election, and that —in a departure from previous elections—military personnel and their family members will have to cast their votes outside military barracks. Union Election Commission (UEC) spokesman U Myint Naing said at the commission’s press conference in Naypyitaw on Thursday that “it is still impossible to campaign inside cantonments” due to security reasons. He also reaffirmed that polling stations will not be operated inside military barracks in the November election. In October last year, the UEC submitted draft amendments to electoral bylaws to the Union Parliament. The commission proposed a provision to mandate that polling stations for military personnel and their family members be placed outside the barracks, for them “to be able to cast votes together with civilian voters and to be transparent, where candidates, observers and party representatives can freely enter and monitor.” Military spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy that electoral campaigning will not be allowed inside barracks due to the constitutional provision that civil servants must be free from party politics..."