Despite having a woman leader, women are largely excluded from key positions of influence and leadership in Myanmar — a situation that helped the country's military succeed in its recent coup.
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Articles on Myanmar elections
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After arresting Aung San Suu Kyi once again, the army is clearly not ready to relinquish control.
It is difficult to see how the military will benefit from another coup, since it already enjoyed immense political and economic influence under the previous power-sharing agreement.
The constitutional change needed to further democratise Myanmar is impossible without the military’s consent, so achieving major political transformation through the election alone seems unlikely.
In a country with 135 ethnic minorities, democratic elections have little meaning if the stateless, persecuted Rohingya people continue to be ethnically cleansed.
For better or for worse, various countries around the world charted a new course last year. What lies ahead for 2016?
We recently undertook extensive fieldwork in Myanmar to find out what could help resolve the underlying issues that drive the conflict between the Muslim Rohingya and the majority Buddhist Rakhine.
Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD has won Myanmar's elections in a landslide, but must lead the transition to democratic rule carrying the hopes of tens of millions of voters who expect life to be transformed.
With the opposition party on course to win a historic election, it's time to get serious on some difficult questions.
Myanmar is holding elections, but like the many other authoritarian regimes that do so, it isn't for democratic reasons and regime change remains highly unlikely.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in International & Community Development, Deakin University
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Visiting Scholar, International State Crime Initiative, Queen Mary University of London
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Co-Deputy Director, Human Rights Centre and Co-Director of Postgraduate Studies, School of Law, University of Essex
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Professor and Head of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania
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Senior Lecturer in the Dept of History & the American and Canadian Studies Research Centre, University of Birmingham
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Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Manchester
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Professor of World Politics, SOAS, University of London
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Senior Lecturer in Latin American Politics, University of Bath
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Lecturer, Royal Holloway
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Associate Professor of Global Business and Board Member of the Institute for Latino and Latin American Studies, St Mary's College of California
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Associate Professor (Politics), University of Nottingham
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Lecturer in International Development, University of Bath
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Associate Professor in Politics, University of Leicester
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Jean Monnet Research Fellow, EUI, Firenze, 2019-20, and Associate Professor in International Relations, University of Nottingham
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Lecturer in Spanish and European Studies, University of Bath
