Lecture on Myanmar 2015 Elections now available online

Dr Anthony Ware on 'Monitoring and Analysis of Myanmar's 2015 Election Processes and Result': public lecture for the Electoral Regulation Research Network.

Our recent public lecture is now available online. Please see our past events page on our website or visit our YouTube channel.

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 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 discussed the elections, analysing the election day processes, concerns and issues raised, and the constitutional limitations imposed on the elections. It also offered insights into the Myanmar peace process and Muslim-Buddhist communal tensions, and the implications of the election on these processes.