Myanmar says most Rakhine voting stations will not operate in November election

FILE PHOTO: A landscape view of the downtown with ancient pagodas in the background in Mrauk U, Rakhine state, Myanmar June 28, 2019. REUTERS/Ann Wang

(Reuters) - More than half the polling stations initially planned in conflict-torn Rakhine for Myanmar's Nov. 8 election will no longer operate, as parts of the state are too unstable for voting, the country's election committee said.

The region, where most parliamentary seats are held by Rakhine nationalist opponents of Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has been beset by an ethnic insurgency that has intensified this year.