The nation’s fortunes have improved since the end of outright military rule in 2011 with GDP growing at an average of seven percent a year.
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Regardless of party affiliation, there is recognition that the people of Myanmar deserve better. The worldwide community, including Indonesia and major powers, praised his leadership in opening the impoverished nation to the outside world.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party and its chief rival, the ruling, military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, held final rallies Friday, the last day of campaigning before a cooling-off period.
Hiroko Masuhara and Koyuki Higashi arrived at city hall in the trendy Shibuya district on Thursday morning to collect the certificate that will allow them to rent an apartment, visit each other in hospital and gain a variety of other benefits as a couple.
Until last August, a few in the USDP, such as lower house speaker Shwe Mann, had been talking about a coalition with the NLD – and putting himself forward as a compromise presidential candidate.
‘Abandoned people’: What rights do the Rohingya Muslims have? But he warned that the poll irregularities could give the USDP enough seats to work with a bloc of unelected military legislatures to determine the next government. But whatever happens after the elections, everything depends on how many seats the Lady and her party can muster during what will most certainly be an extremely charged moment for Myanmar. “I will accept the new government formed based on the election result”, Thein Sein said. “This is their show-piece election where they move to the next stage of their constitution being implemented so whoever wins, they will have ultimate control”, Farmaner said. She has, however, said that she would lead the country if her party wins, without elaborating on how this would be possible. The country’s other Muslims can vote. Credible elections will be crucial for the country’s democratic transition.
Htay Aung, a 62-year-old house builder, has worked his whole life to lift his family’s standard of living. We can no longer use the “domestic affairs” pretext against taking a strong stance against any attempt by the military to reject the results of Sunday’s election.
“While the constitution is far from ideal, and understandably perceived as a flawed document, it still serves as the basis for Myanmar’s current political system, including the elections this weekend”, said Nyantha Maw Lin, managing director at political consultancy Vriens & Partners in Yangon.
However, the constitution, drafted under military control, guarantees that the armed forces maintain control of more than 25 percent of the seats in Parliament and the key security portfolios.
Winning the elections is only the first step for the NLD to take power.
Myanmar will go to the polls this Sunday, November 8, to elect a new parliament.
Former Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ms Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency, even if the NLD wins, because of the constitution which disqualifies anyone with foreign offspring. Her late husband and her children are British.
Detractors say her reputation as a human rights icon has diminished in recent years as she plunged herself into Myanmar’s febrile politics, often choosing hard pragmatism over the idealism of her house arrest years.
No wonder, global observers have laid emphasis on the influence that the election will have on Myanmar’s foreign policy. Yet she appears to have lost little of her massive popularity among voters, especially in urban areas and Myanmar’s central heartland. Former political prisoner Aung Din estimates on Cogitasia that a third of voters may be undecided. “But when it comes to minority issues, particularly the Muslim and the Rohingya issue in (Burma), we feel that she has failed us”. Speaking in English and Myanmar, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi took more than 80 questions, though her answers were often brief and sometimes enigmatic.
The party did however contest by-elections in 2012, completing a near-clean sweep of seats available then, including Ms Suu Kyi’s victory in a rural constituency in the delta region west of Rangoon.
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The NLD-nominated president has the authority to appoint ministers in regional and state governments while a majority in both the Lower and Upper house enables legislation to pass through Parliament without resistance.
