Dossier: Elections in Myanmar

On 8 November 2015, a new Parliament will be elected after decades of military rule in Myanmar. The elections will decide how the reform process of the past five years will be continued and whether the people of Myanmar can benefit. This dossier will accompany the next months until a new government is formed by offering policy and economic analysis.

After the elections

Win Myint, The Speaker of the Lower House, walking into parliament on 2nd February 2016 the 2nd day of lower house parliamentarian session in Naypyitaw. He is the first speaker from the National League for Democracy Party

What are the prospects for the next Myanmar government?

Peace, federalism, development, and poverty - this is the interlinked "cluster", which has to be at the top of the NLD’s agenda. On Aung San Suu Kyi's political challenges in the coming years.

[external_media:soundcloud.com/boellstiftung/myanmar-after-the-elections]

By Khin Zaw Win

A member of parliament from ethnic party and NLD party members are attending to the lower house parliament in Naypyitaw on 2nd Day of parliament

Myanmar: A democratic landslide

Myanmar has a decades-long history of brutal ethnic conflicts. In view of this the party of democratic struggle did unexpectedly well in last year’s election.

By Nicholas Farrelly

Myanmar needs more than a new government

The people of Myanmar have collectively placed their faith in the NLD. The party will have to go on - even beyond Aung San Suu Kyi’s lifetime. A commentary.

By Khin Zaw Win

Podcast

Overview

A Primer on Myanmar’s Elections of 2015

What is at stake? Will the elections be free? Who is competing and how does the electoral process work? Our FAQ on the most democratic elections since 1960 in Myanmar.

By Khin Zaw Win

Comment

Myanmar Elections: Coups, Competition, and Compromise

Myanmar and its power elites do not have experience with electoral politics. That makes Myanmar’s elections exciting, and at the same time risky.

By Zeya Thu

Video

DVB TV is an independent broadcaster with offices in Yangon, Mandalay, and Chiang Mai. For the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung they have made a short movie about the upcoming elections in Myanmar.

Interview

"The NLD will win the elections"

On November 8, Myanmar votes for a new parliament. What do the parties stand for and what can they change? An interview with Sui Khar, Joint Secretary-General of the Chin National Front.

By Rual Lian Thang and Dr Sui Khar

Study

The State of Myanmar’s Reforms on the Eve of the 2015 Elections

Myanmar prepares for the second nation-wide poll in 25 years. The elections in November 2015 promise to be a watershed for the country’s democratisation.

By Marco Bünte

pictures

Elections in Myanmar

More articles about this region

COVID-19: Tips for a Saner Digital Diet in These Viral Times

Article

A virus riding on another virus. That is how the ‘infodemic’ is raging in online spaces around the outbreak of the novel coronavirus called COVID-19, which has been on just about everyone’s radar since late January 2020.

As grave as the quest to manage the respiratory disease and cure those ill with it is not only the challenge of using facts versus fear - but how to create and keep avenues of information that withstand the unrelenting drip of skewed, confused, partially true to totally false information, to racist and prejudiced views, or a cocktail of these.

By Johanna Son

Picture of the International Criminal Court in Den Haag

Scenarios for Justice: ICC investigates the situation in Afghanistan

Report

From December 4-6, 2019 the International Criminal Court organized a series of hearings on alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. In April 2019, the pre-Trial Chamber II of the court unprecedentedly denied the request of the court’s prosecutor for authorising an investigation. The three-day hearing provided not only the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) and the victims’ representatives, but also the government of Afghanistan the opportunity to lobby against the ICC’s decision on investigation and prosecution of war crimes in the country. This report provides an overview of the current status of the case and the prospects of future developments.

By Abdul Wahed Zia Moballegh

"We will give blood, but not our land" - The Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the context of Northeast India

Background

India’s Northeast, a land of volatile identities having an uneasy experience with migration, is held together by a fragile consensus forged in the larger interest of peace and co-existence. The seams of these fault-lines pass by people’s lived realities, always at the risk of being burst open with an act of insensitivity. The enactment of the CAA is considered by many as one such act.

By Kaustubh Deka

“There is so much more the world should know about Afghanistan”

Interview

Omaid Sharifi is a pioneer Afghan activist and one of the co-founders of ArtLords, an artist association which has been attracting widespread international attention in recent years.

By Lin Xin and Luzie Mayer

Talking about China in Myanmar

Report

As a direct neighbour to China, Myanmar plays a strategic role in the “Belt and Road Initiative”. In order to make this work in Myanmar’s highly fractured society, government needs to be more transparent, and parliamentarians and civil society need a greater say in the planning.

By Axel Harneit-Sievers

Filipinos trying to find their voting precincts.

The 2019 Philippine Elections: Consolidating Power in an Eroding Democracy

The outcome of the 2019 midterm elections in the Philippines displayed the domineering political influence of President Rodrigo Duterte, a crowded-out opposition, and the limits of his promise for genuine and meaningful socio-political change.

By Aries Arugay