Elections in Myanmar
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Myanmar is a unitary republic, with elected representatives at the national state or region levels. On the national level, the president who is the head of state and legislature, is elected indirectly through an Electoral College. According to the 2008 constitution, the term durations of the President, and Cabinet are five years.[1] All elections are regulated by the Union Election Commission.[2]
Myanmar is divided into 330 constituencies, and elections are only held in constituencies where there is more than one candidate. Otherwise, a representative is selected from each constituency with additional 110 seats appointed by the
The country has had 17 general elections since 1922. Following the 2020 elections, in which the National League for Democracy increased its majority, the Tatmadaw, Myanmar's military, claimed the results were invalid.[5] The Tatmadaw deposed democratically elected leaders the day before newly-elected politicians could be sworn in. Democratic elections were forbidden until the ongoing state of emergency ended which was first projected to be on 1 February 2022, later it was extended to 1 February 2023. and as of February 2023, extended by another 6 months.[6][7]
History
In \August 1988
The major opposition party, the National League for Democracy, achieved a landslide victory with a majority of 392 out of the 492 seats; under the parliamentary system, the NLD should have formed the new government, however, the SLORC refused to acknowledge the results, and thus the People's Assembly never convened.
The military junta placed the leader of the NLD,
On 7 February 2008, SPDC announced that a referendum for the new
In the 2015 general election, the National League for Democracy won an absolute majority of seats, taking 86 percent of the seats in the Assembly of the Union well over the 67 percent supermajority needed to ensure that its preferred candidates will be elected president and first vice president.[19][20]
In the 2020 elections, the NLD won 920 of the total 1,117 seats, which was met with claims of fraud from USDP and the military. As a result of widespread investigations and civil unrest, a second coup d’etat occurred in February 2021, and a state of emergency rule was declared.[21] This state of emergency was extended twice, and as of February 2023, is meant to end in August 2023.[22]
Latest elections
House of Nationalities
Party | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|
Pa-O National Organization | 1 | 0 | |
New Democracy Party | 1 | +1 | |
National Unity Party | 0 | –1 | |
Zomi Congress for Democracy | 0 | –2 | |
Independents | 0 | –2 | |
Cancelled due to insurgency | 7 | – | |
Military appointees | 56 | 0 | |
Total | 224 | 0 | |
Source: The Irrawaddy,[23] UEC[24] |
House of Representatives
Party | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|
Shan National League for Democracy | 13 | +1 | |
Arakan National Party | 4 | –8 | |
Ta'ang National Party | 3 | 0 | |
Pa-O National Organisation | 3 | 0 | |
Mon Unity Party | 2 | +2 | |
Kayah State Democratic Party | 2 | +2 | |
Kachin State People's Party | 1 | 0 | |
Arakan Front Party | 1 | +1 | |
Wa National Party | 1 | 0 | |
Zomi Congress for Democracy | 1 | –1 | |
Kokang Democracy and Unity Party | 0 | –1 | |
Lisu National Development Party | 0 | –2 | |
Wa Democratic Party | 0 | –1 | |
Independents | 0 | –1 | |
Cancelled due to insurgency | 15 | – | |
Military appointees | 110 | 0 | |
Total | 440 | 0 | |
Source: UEC[25][23][24] |
Notes
References
- ^ Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2008) (English). Sections 61, 119, 151, 168, 235.
- ^ a b "How do elections work in Myanmar?". merin.
- ^ "MYANMAR Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives)".
- ^ "Myanmar: Mechanics of the Elections". Carnegie.
- ^ "Myanmar election: No evidence fraud in 2020 vote, observers say". BBC News. 17 May 2021.
- ^ "Myanmar junta extends state of emergency, delaying promised elections". The Guardian. 2 February 2023.
- ^ "Myanmar military rulers extend state of emergency by six months". Al Jazeera. 1 February 2023.
- JSTOR 2644577.
- ^ "Myanmar coup: What protesters can learn from the '1988 generation'". BBC. 16 March 2021.
- ^ Aung, Htet (August 2007). "Burma's Rigged Road Map to Democracy". The Irrawaddy. 15 (8).
- ^ "Myanmar's seven-step peace process not inclusive, lacks timeline – Annan". UN News. 10 November 2003.
- S2CID 154156055.
- ^ "The May 2008 Constitutional Referendum in Burma". Vote to Nowhere. 30 April 2008.
- ^ "Burma *Mynanmar: Preliminary Report on the Referendum of May 10 2008" (PDF). 20 May 2008.
- JSTOR 41418644– via JSTOR.
- ^ "Sixty Years after Human Rights Declaration Adopted Challenge Remains Same — Bringing Vision Closer to Ground, so It Touches 'Lives of Real People', Third Committee Told". United Nations. 20 October 2010. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
- ^ "Myanmar confirms sweeping election victory for Suu Kyi's party". CNN. 4 April 2012.
- ^ "Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi wins by-election: NLD party". BBC. 1 April 2012.
- ^ "Aung San Suu Kyi wins outright majority in Myanmar election". The Guardian. 13 November 2015.
- ^ "Burma Elections 2015". Human Rights watch. 16 November 2015.
- S2CID 232245443.
- ^ "Myanmar military rulers extend state of emergency by six months". Al Jazeera. 2 February 2023.
- ^ a b "Myanmar's 2020 General Election Results in Numbers". The Irrawaddy. 11 November 2020. Archived from the original on 28 March 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
- ^ a b "၂၀၂၀ ပြည့်နှစ် ပါတီစုံဒီမိုကရေစီအထွေထွေရွေးကောက်ပွဲ ရလဒ်များ ထုတ်ပြန်ပြီးစီးကြောင်း အသိပေးကြေညာခြင်း". Union Election Commission (in Burmese). 15 November 2020. Archived from the original on 17 January 2021. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
- ^ "ပြည်ထောင်စုရွေးကောက်ပွဲ ကော်မရှင်". Union Election Commission. Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
External links
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- Audio Interview with Mr. Kyaw Zwa Moe, managing editor of Irrawady News Media on Burma and Elections
- International Crisis Group (28 April 2015). Myanmar's Electoral Landscape (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 May 2015. Retrieved 22 May 2015.