Tag: 88 Generation

Myanmar by-elections test government support – Nikkei Asian Review

YANGON — Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy government are gearing up for their first electoral test since taking power last year, with April 1 by-elections looming for a small number of parliamentary seats. “Many of the vacant seats are in the NLD’s stronghold areas,” noted Nay Yan Oo, a Myanmar analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. The seats being contested were vacated when their occupants were appointed to various roles in the NLD government. Regulations require that lawmakers who join the administration must give up their parliamentary seats. There are 18 seats at stake, with 95 candidates from 24 parties seeking the support of 2 million voters.

NLD decision to contest vote sets scene for possible power shift – Nikkei Asian Review

NAYPYITAW — Although the opposition National League for Democracy boycotted Myanmar’s last national elections in 2010, it always seemed unlikely it would do likewise in this year’s vote, despite some earlier suggestions to the contrary. In early 2012, the NLD won 43 out of 45 seats in parliamentary by-elections, and is widely seen by most observers as the party likely to win the lion’s share of votes in any free and fair nationwide poll. So, on July 11, just a month after party founder Tin Oo said it was unlikely that the NLD would boycott this election, party leader Aung San Suu Kyi put an end to any doubts by announcing on Saturday that the party would compete on Nov. 8. “Our aim in running is to implement the unfinished democratic reforms,” Suu Kyi said, speaking in Burmese in the capital Naypyitaw on July 11