Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling party- National League for Democracy (NLD) has won a clear majority in the Myanmar General Elections 2020. The party was officially declared the winner by the Union Election Commission (UEC) of Myanmar on November 15, 2020.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) secured a total of 396 seats, which is higher than its 2015 tally of 390 seats. The party won 258 seats in Myanmar's lower house Pyithu Hluttaw and 138 seats in the upper house- Amyotha Hluttaw. The party had required only 322 seats to win a majority in the general elections.
On the other hand, the main opposition party - the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) managed to win only 33 seats, 26 in the lower house and 7 in the upper house of the Parliament. The party's seat count fell further this year, as in the 2015 elections, it had won 41 seats.
This is the second consecutive win for Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi's party National League for Democracy since 2015. When Suu Kyi's party had crossed the majority mark by securing 322 seats, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tweeted congratulating Aung San Suu Kyi for her victory in the elections. PM Modi had highlighted how the successful conduct of polls in Myanmar was another step in the nation's ongoing democratic transition.
Congratulations to Aung San Suu Kyi & NLD for victory in elections. The successful conduct of polls is another step in ongoing democratic transition in Myanmar. I look forward to continuing to work with you to strengthen our traditional bonds of friendship: PM Modi
— ANI (@ANI) November 12, 2020
(file pic) pic.twitter.com/dv6eP9oIzu
Key Details
•The first session of the newly elected Myanmar parliament is supposed to be held within 90 days of the formal declaration of result.
•During the session, the members of both houses of the parliament along with military nominated members will elect the President of the country.
• Under Myanmar's constitution, 25 percent seats in the parliament are reserved for military candidates, who are nominated by the army.
•This time, the ruling NLD party has appealed to 48 ethnic parties to come together with it to form a unity government. This offer was not made when the party had last won the election in 2015.
Aung San Suu Kyi's first term & Myanmar Politics
•Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's first term as the first State Counsellor of Myanmar was turbulent, marked by the brutal crackdown of the ethnic Rohingyas in Rakhine state in 2017, for which she received global criticism.
•The crackdown led hundreds and thousands of Rohingyas to flee the region and seek refuge in other nations like Bangladesh, which is currently providing shelter to a majority of the Rohingya refugees. The crackdown is now a subject of a genocide investigation.
•This was seen as a huge failure on Suu Kyi's part to make significant headway on the country’s myriad ethnic conflicts. Myanmar had been subject to isolation and decay for almost 50 years due to its strict military rule.
•In fact, Suu Kyi herself spent years under house arrest before the power of the military generals began to loosen up and the first general elections were held in 2011, which were boycotted by Suu Kyi's party.
•Her party contested and won a landslide victory in the 2015 Myanmar Elections, winning almost 86 percent of the seats.
•However, Suu Kyi was prohibited from becoming the President because her late husband and children are foreign citizens. She then assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor, which is similar to the post of Prime Minister.
•Despite winning a landslide victory, her government was required to govern with military involvement, especially in areas of security and defence.
Significance
The Myanmar Election 2020 results show that Aung San Suu Kyi’s government retained its popularity at home even as the Rohingya crisis damaged its international reputation. However, Rohingya were excluded from the poll and the voting was cancelled in some conflict areas, which affected almost 1.5 million people.
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