Elections

Reforms and monetary policy changes in the post-election period would boost slowing growth in Myanmar, said an International Monetary Fund official. Hoe Ee Khor, deputy director for Asia and Pacific at the IMF, said the involvement of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in setting regulations ...

Chinese-language posters with instructions on how to vote are causing controversy in Myanmar’s Shan State.  Lashio town, in northern Shan State where Myanmar borders China, is home to a large number of ethnic Chinese people. Some have lived there for generations. Like elsewhere in Myanmar, a combination of historic ...

Outside of Nai Soi village in northern Thailand, more than 14,000 refugees from Kayah State debate elections going on just across the border. While there will be no voting for those in Thailand’s largest refugee camp – most lack ID cards – that doesn’t mean they ...

Police are preparing a comprehensive security blanket in advance of the 8 November election. Training is about to begin for more than 40,000 special police officers drafted nationwide to supplement the regular force during elections, while there is also a provision for calling the military ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy promised supporters in Kampong Cham province on 3 October that if his party comes to power, civil servants and soldiers can be certain that they will keep their jobs, and will be given raises. Speaking to hundreds of supporters in Srei Santhor district, ...

Nationalist monks are stepping up their political activities as Myanmar’s election approaches, with the opposition National League for Democracy feeling the heat as the main target of Ma Ba Tha’s growing reach. The constitution bars monks from voting or forming political parties, but Ma Ba Tha, ...

Eleven Muslim politicians have successfully challenged their controversial disqualification from contesting the November elections following a surprise reversal by the Union Election Commission. Their reinstatement after appeal followed concerted pressure from the United States and eight other governments, which had urged Myanmar to hold “a credible, ...

Tuan Cer Sung, better known as Cheery Zahau, is aiming for a Lower House seat in Falam Township, where her parents were born. She is one of five women candidates from the Chin Progressive Party (CPP) to run in the 8 November polls in Myanmar. In an interview with ...

For the tens of thousands of farmers in Magwe Region still reeling from last month’s floods, the November election may not register as high-priority. With upwards of 100,000 displaced and having lost their livelihoods, the immediate need to rebuild means the election is the last ...

To encourage an autonomous Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) is one of the priorities outlined by the National League for Democracy (NLD) in its draft economic policies, but officials say they are already on the right track. The draft will likely be used as a basis ...