Myanmar Elections

Following this year’s General Election and the UEC’s release of the official results, The Asia Foundation has produced the attached short brief detailing the new composition of Myanmar’s state and region hluttaws(parliaments). Beyond the strong performance of the NLD, the brief notes improved women’s representation in the state/region hluttaws, the… Read more

On April 1, nearly 800,000 out of some 2 million eligible voters cast their ballot in Myanmar’s by-elections to fill 19 vacant seats at the national and sub-national level. The election is the first since the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government assumed power in March 2016, and the first to be administered by the new Union Election Co… Read more

As Myanmar’s new government begins defining its reform policies, arguably the biggest need is for good governance. Following decades of centralized military dictatorship, the country confronts dual challenges of trying to loosen the military’s grip on public administration as well as push government agencies to be more accountable and deliver bette… Read more

The Asia Foundation recently hosted a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., focused on changes underway in post-election Myanmar, which included the Foundation’s country representative in Myanmar, Kim Ninh, along with Ma Thida, noted human rights activist, surgeon, and writer.

Women in Myanmar were granted constitutional rights to equal political participation and the right to vote in 1932, quite early in comparison with other countries in Asia. Japan did not do so until 1945, China in 1949, and India in 1950. Yet the reality of women’s political participation in Myanmar…

On Sunday, November 8, more than 30 million voters in Myanmar went to the polls to cast their votes for members of the Union Parliament as well as for the 14 state and region parliaments. These were the first elections in many decades in which an astounding 91 diverse political parties participated. Given that many were voting for the first time, the Union Election Commission, political parties, and hundreds of civil society organizations provided much-needed voter education.

This Sunday, November 8, more than 30 million voters will head to the polls for landmark nationwide general elections in Myanmar, in which all 91 political parties will be able to contest for the first time in many decades. Many of these voters will also be voting for the first time in their lives. While attention is focused on the presidency, in fact, there are over a thousand parliamentary seats up for grabs across the country’s ethnically diverse regions.

On September 27, 112 developers and designers gathered in Yangon for the finale of the MaePaySoh (Let’s Vote) Hack Challenge, a competition to develop web and mobile applications that provide voters access to essential information…

When 32 million Myanmar voters go to the polls on November 8 to choose their representatives in national, state, and regional parliaments, many will be voting for just the first or second time in their lives. After decades of military rule, this will be Myanmar’s first election in which all political parties will participate, with 91 parties fielding 6,074 candidates.