Monitoring and Analysis of Myanmar’s 2015 Election Processes and Result

Electoral Regulation Research Network Seminar


Tuesday, 19 July 2016

Speaker:

  • Dr Anthony Ware

Chair:

  • Dr Yee-Fui Ng

About the Seminar:

Myanmar held landmark general elections on 8 November 2015. This was the first general election Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party contested after it won the 1990 election but was denied power. Despite being held under a constitution many argue is deeply flawed, this landmark election saw the NLD win 77.1% of seats up for election (255 of 330 in lower house, 135 of 168 in the upper house). Thus despite the Myanmar constitution granting 25% of seats to military appointees, this result is sufficient to give the NLD has an outright majority in both houses of parliament (58% in lower house, 60% in upper house).

Nonetheless, Suu Kyi is barred from being President, and the power of the government is severely limited by the constitutional power of the military. This seminar will discuss the elections, analysing the election day processes, concerns and issues raised, and the constitutional limitations imposed on the elections. It will also offer insights into the Myanmar peace process and Muslim-Buddhist communal tensions, and the implications of the election on these processes.

Anthony Ware

About the Speaker:

Dr Anthony Ware is Senior Lecturer in International & Community Development at Deakin University, and the Acting Director of the Australia Myanmar Institute (AMI). Anthony has won several early career fellowships and scholarships as well as awards for teaching excellence and. He has published 25 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. His research and writing focusses on development in difficult socio-political contexts, particularly the impact of international development on democratic transition and conflict in Myanmar. His other research interests include community-led development and the role of religion in development. The AMI co-sponsored an APHEDA official election-monitoring mission to Myanmar for the 2015 elections, just one of only three international non-government monitoring teams accredited. Dr Ware led a team to Rakhine state, the site of recent Muslim-Buddhist violence and origin of Rohingya refugees.