Myanmar Gears Up for November Election
Myanmar’s ruling National League for Democracy party will almost certainly dominate the country’s November 8 general elections but could lose the majority it has and needs in parliament to keep governing alone after a bruising first term, analysts say.
New and old insurgencies, disenfranchised Rohingya and travel restrictions imposed to check the coronavirus are also raising concerns about how credible the poll will be.
Campaigning for the 1,171 seats up for grabs in the bicameral national parliament, the Assembly of the Union or Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, and state and regional legislatures, got underway last week.
‘A very simple choice’
Pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a historic landslide election win in 2015, routing the military-backed Union Solidarity Development Party, which kick-started Myanmar’s transition from decades of brutal dictatorship to quasi-civilian rule after winning a disputed poll five years earlier.
Zsombor Peter
