National League for Democracy (NLD) party candidate Win Min walks during an NLD campaign airports in myanmar Yangon
Thomson Reuters

By Aung Hla Tun and Timothy Mclaughlin

YANGON (Reuters) - A sparsely populated cluster of Indian Ocean islands has become the unlikely focus of allegations that Myanmar's government is spiking the chances of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party in next month's landmark general election.

Both the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the Nobel peace laureate's National League for Democracy (NLD) have fielded candidates on the Coco Islands, an archipelago off Myanmar's west coast and the country's smallest parliamentary constituency.

But NLD parliamentary nominee Win Min has been prevented from going to the Coco Islands, where the main installation is a naval base, making it almost impossible for him to canvas for votes in the Nov. 8 poll.

The allegations undermine the semi-civilian government's insistence that the election will be Myanmar's first free and fair poll for 25 years, a milestone in its transition from military dictatorship to democracy that will be closely watched by the international community.