Peaceful elections concluded in Myanmar

Peaceful elections concluded in Myanmar

by DIPD on November 12, 2015

An impressively high voter turnout and what looks like a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) are two of the main stories deriving from Sunday’s historic elections in Myanmar.

On Sunday 8 November 2015, the people of Myanmar headed for the polling stations in what was the first free parliamentary election since 1990. This was the culmination of a fairly peaceful electoral campaign period and fortunately, Sunday was no exception.

Although the final results have not yet been announced by the Union Election Commission, reports of a voter turnout of around 80 % is indeed highly impressive. NLD has declared themselves victorious with reports of at least 70 % of voters marking their support for Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. The spokesperson from USDP has announced that they will respect the election outcome and the Chief Commander of the military, Min Aung Hlaing, has also congratulated NLD for “winning a majority”. This is undoubtedly a remarkable landmark in Myanmar’s democratic transition.

Peaceful Election Day

More than 10.000 domestic observers observed the polling day process, while a large numbers of international observers and party agents also watched the polls. Initial media and observer reports indicate that the polling day was largely peaceful and mostly incident-free. On Election Day, long queues formed outside many polling stations long before they opened and the high voter turnout combined with occasional inadequate voting buildings resulted in people waiting for up to 4 hours to cast their vote.

Still, most voters showed considerable patience and dedication, with one voter expressing: “We came back from Singapore and had not cast advance votes, so we came here to vote, as we want to experience it, because it is the first time in our lives”.

Problems with voter lists

Unfortunately, reports show the problems with the voter lists may have had serious effects on a few local electoral results, such as in Hlaing Tharyar Township in Yangon. The errors in the voter lists have simply resulted in a disenfranchisement of some votes. Overall, these problems have not had a great effect on the electoral result, though.

Furthermore, the process of advance voting caused a few problems in some constituencies, as the votes arrived very late on Election Day and were therefore declared invalid. Shan and Kachin States were unfortunate examples of this.

In addition, many ethnic voters faced difficulties to vote for the ministers of Rakhine/Ethnic Affairs since not every station had polling box for the ethnic affairs minister.

Landslide victory

Even though the peaceful election campaign, the likewise peaceful Election Day and the relatively few problems encountered during the voting process are clearly important stepping stones in Myanmar’s democratic transition, most people will likely remember the 2015 elections for the overwhelming victory for NLD. Not only have the NLD exceed expectations in getting around 70 % of the votes (final result still pending), they also won overwhelming victories in almost all areas of the country, with Northern Rakhine State, as well as parts of Shan and Kachin state as the most prominent exceptions.

“Hope is in the air and we can start dreaming of better education and lifestyle for our generations to come“, a voter declared after casting her vote.

An underlying story is that numerous heavyweight candidates from the governing Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) lost to direct opponents from NLD. Among the USDP candidates losing their parliamentary seats are Party Chairperson Htay Oo, Union Minister Aung Min and Speaker of the Parliament Shwe Mann.

Generally, USDP only performed well in areas with a large military or civil service presence.

Another surprising development is that NLD performed considerably better in the ethnic areas than expected. Thus, they have captured most of the seats in Mon, Thanintaryi and Southern Rakhine, and is also expected to win a number of seats in Chin, Shan and Kachin States (final results still pending).

Simultaneously, the numerous small and ethnic parties generally performed below expectations and only in Northern Rakhine (ANP) and in parts of Northern and Southern Shan (SNLD and SNDP) did the ethnic parties gain a significant number of seats. The small parties NUP, NDF, NDP and Farmers Party failed to win a single seat.

And now for the presidency…

Once the final result is known, an elongated process of electing the new president begins. Technically, the 2008 constitution states that the Lower House, the Upper House and the military will each nominate a candidate for presidency. All elected and unelected representatives in the parliament will then chose, who will become president, while the two other candidates will become vice-presidents.

This process is expected to take a least three months and a new parliament and president is therefore not expected to be in place until late February at the very earliest.

As widely reported, Aung San Suu Kyi is unable to run for presidency, as her children are English citizens, but she is nonetheless expected to play an important role, both in choosing the new president and in governing throughout the next five years.

A long and difficult road ahead

Rome was not build in a day and neither will democracy in Myanmar be. Once the electoral dust has settled and the international media and election observers have flown home, it will thus be important how NLD will manage their new position of power and how the future stance will be of the military still represented through reserved seats (25 %) in parliament. Though the losing USDP candidates have largely taken NLD’s victory with grace and accepted their defeat, a change in power at such a scale will require patience, boldness and new challenges for many actors among the political parties, military and civil society organisations.

Through the Myanmar Multiparty Democracy Programme, DIPD will continue to support the cross-political dialogue, which will continue to be an important component of the continued democratic transition.

From: Myanmar, News and updates