Elections

China will support the new government that emerges from next month’s elections in Myanmar no matter which party wins, senior officials told The Myanmar Times in Beijing. During an interview at a media forum in the Chinese capital last week, Sun Haiyan, director general of the ...

Speaking to reporters on the campaign trail in Pegu Division’s Phyu on 25 October, former ruling party chairman Shwe Mann has admitted the party will likely struggle in the upcoming general election. With 25 percent of seats in Myanmar’s legislature reserved for military appointees, the USDP needs ...

Expat Thais will be able to register to vote online in the next general election, a move which could boost overseas voter turnout, the Election Commission said on 22 October.  Keep reading ...

Election officials in central Shan State have called for the postponement of voting in two townships because of continued fighting between government forces and an ethnic armed group that has displaced at least 3000 civilians. Keep reading ...

Election day is 8 November for most of Myanmar’s 32 million eligible voters, but advance voting – an extremely contentious issue in the 2010 polls – has already begun in some parts of the country. All states and regions have received their ballot papers, each carrying ...

When Myanmar votes next month in what has been billed as its first free and fair election in 25 years, Tun Lin, and around 4 million of his fellow citizens, won’t be taking part. Most, like the 33-year-old fisherman, are working overseas and have been unable to ...

In landslide-ravaged Chin State, displaced residents say the election has fallen to the bottom of their priority list, causing some parties to fear opportunist electioneering may be in the works. “I have to vote for whoever will give me a house to live in,” said Pu Lung ...

Myanmar authorities have arrested a peace activist and a young woman for mocking the country’s powerful military in the latest crackdown on free speech ahead of landmark elections on 8 November. Human rights groups have condemned the military-dominated government for moving their repression into social media, ...

International commentators are fond of saying that Myanmar’s 8 November election could bring sweeping changes to the country. But many of the displaced people living in camps in Kachin State do not see it that way. Any hope that an end of conflict might improve matters ...

Real estate agents in Yangon say the property market has fallen totally silent over the past week, with almost no deals signed. While sales have continued to slow since the start of the year, there has been no buying and selling whatsoever over the past week, ...