YANGON: Myanmar's election supervisory body on Tuesday (Oct 20) defended its decision to cancel voting in several areas of the country in next month's general election, saying it could not be free and fair because of ongoing conflicts with armed ethnic rebel groups.

The Union Election Commission (UEC) announced last week that it was cancelling polling for the Nov 8 election in parts of the states of Rakhine, Kachin, Kayin, Mon and Shan, as well as the Bago region, all of which are troubled by various levels of unrest.