Aung San Sui Kyi Party claims to win Myanmar Elections
Aung San Suu Kyi led National League for Democracy (NLD) party has claimed to have won the Myanmar elections. Around 38 million voted to select the National League of Democracy (NLD) Party for a second term. NLD was required to win at least 2/3rd of the elected seats to win.
The Rohingya Crisis
The previous term of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Sui was very controversial because of the way she handled the Rohingya Crisis. Around 1 million Rohingya Muslims were displaced in the crisis in 2017 which has led to a bad reputation of Aung San Sui. Even a genocide case was brought up in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Myanmar.
Now, win of Aung San Sui’s party will be able to restore the country’s reputation for peace or not it is a big question.
Why is the party claiming the victory?
The current constitution of Myanmar was authored by the military. According to the Constitution, one-fourth of the seats in the National Legislature re reserved for military appointed representatives. Therefore, the NLD needs two-thirds of the elected seat to claim majority. This majority has been designed by the military almost to be impossible for a party to win in such a diverse multi-ethnic political system. Thus, the election commission this time has cancelled voting in certain areas. The northern Rakhine state was one among the regions where voting was cancelled. Bottomline, 22 seats are to remain vacant till the conflicts eases which is not to happen any time soon. More than 1.5 million voters were disfranchised by this move.
Is the military becoming weak?
Military has supported the NLD government in the first term so it will be accepting the results of the elections. The relations between military and the government have been friendly in the last 5 years. However, a military coup may be expected if the current civilian led government does not begin economic development as early as possible.
Way Forward
Looking at the problems in the first term of NLD and chances of military taking control, the newly elected NLD government will try to put all its focus towards the human security and economic development. This result will also give a chance to the NLD government to resolve the conflicts peacefully.
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Month: Current Affairs - November, 2020