Myanmars politics has been greatly influenced by the events in its history.

Myanmar that
was initially called Burma has been subject to Britain as one of its colony from 1852 to 1937,
invaded by Japan in 1942 wherein Burmas army that was trained by Japanese resisted such
invasion, and then liberated by Britain from the Japanese occupation with the help from the
leader of Anti-Fascist Peoples AFPFL, Aung San. Aung San was assassinated in 1947 along
with six members from his interim government and a year later Burma gained independence with
U Nu as Prime Minister and by 1962. He abolished the federal system and inaugurated "the
Burmese Way to Socialism" establishing the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) which
diverted the nation into a single-party state. Over the years that Burma was a military led state,
there were various riots that took place in the country that took the lives of thousands of people
due to hunger of the military to still be the ruling power.
It was then Aung San Suu Kyi the daughter of Aung San who formed the National
League of Democracy (NLD) in 1988, a political party that aims to push for a democratic
government. However, the military once again ruled above law to put Suu Kyi to house arrest
and refused to acknowledge NLDs victory in the 1990 elections. By 1997, the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) which replaced BSPP made reforms due to the pressure brought
by the international community.
It was only by 2003 wherein Myanmars military government laid out a roadmap to shift
the political system of Myanmar to democracy that paved the way for drafting a constitution,
staging elections and the convention of parliament (Hluttaw). And by 2010, the first elections
were held after the constitutional referendum. Despite the elections won by the United Solidarity
and Development Party (USDP) it has been questioned and criticized for impartiality and
fairness so because of such criticisms they felt the need to make new procedures for ballots nad
allowed the presence of international observers. By 2012, a by-election was held to fill up the 45
vacant parliamentary seats and this election was observed by ASEAN states, United States, the
European Union among many others.

ELECTIONS
Under Myanmars constitution it is stipulated that the legislative branch votes for the
President of Myanmar based on absolute majority. The legislative branch or the Presidential
Electoral College is made up of three groups, the Upper House (Amyotha Hluttaw), the Lower
House (Pyithy Hluttaw) and the Regional or State Assembly wherein 25% of the allocated seats
per group is reserved for military personnel. The citizens of Myanmar directly casts three votes
on separate ballots for candidates that they want to be elected and win a seat in the parliament in
the Lower House, Upper House and Regional Assemblies.
According to a study made by the Institute for Security and Development Policy , there
are issues about Myanmars 2010 elections that has been continuously raised to present are, first,
the non-proportional voting since the representation of seats in the Upper House is in accordance
to the administrative areas which would not be proportion the population. This is then
contradictory to the system of proportional representation that their government has been
pushing for. Second is on party funding and transparency. Under the principle of Discipline
Multi-Party Democracy that the government established, it allows political parties to form
business for fundraising in financing their campaigns however there are no rules that guarantees
transparency and fairness. Such need for transparency is due to two reasons, first is on the
observers view that there is a strong link between political elites and business interests that
would then give such big parties greater financial advantages and second is on the affiliation
with private business that would be an avenue for some parties to accept funds in the
international arena. Third is on the eligibility to vote since some citizens in Myanmar has bene
deprived to vote due to populist mobilization based on religious and xenophobic grounds. And
lastly is on the cancellation of elections due to riots and insurgencies across 400 villages in
Myanmar.

Political Parties
Political parties in Myanmar operate under the provisions of the Political Party
Registration Law of 2010 wherein they need to have at least 1,000 members, 15 executive
members and has to run in at least three constituencies.
Most countries have embraced democracy however some democracies are characterized
by hybrid froms of governance and remain somewhere between authoritarian and democratic
rule. (Carother 2002, Croisssant and Bunter 2011, Levitsky and Way 2010; Ottaway 2003). The
character and dynamics of individual political parties should be understood in the context of the
party system in general (Mainwaring and Torcal 2006; Mair 2006; Siavelis 2006; Wolinetz
2006). Myanmars political parties can be rooted back to the early period of electoral party
politics since their independence in 1948, the 1962 military coup, to the 1990 election up to
present.
According to XXX the first political aprties in Myanmar actually originated from
massbased organizations in the 20th century. They were basically inspired by nationalist
movement s in India and Britain. The General Council of Burmese (GCBA), a large mass
organization was established after Britain introduced the first Legislative Council election in
1922, as well as other smaller parties. Such Burmese parties continued to prosper in 1925, 1928
and 1932.
In 1930 the Dobama Asiayone (WeBurmans Association) or the Thakin part was
considered as the most important pre war political organization. This party whose ideologies
were frmaed on Nazi facism to revolutionary Marxism-Leninism to reformist Fabian socialism,
were dran to peasant rebellions, labot strikes and student strikes rather than legislative politics.
However, leftist tendencies emerged within the organization itself that eventually separated
people as to who were communsits and socialists.
The Anti-Facisist Peoples Freedom League (AFPFL) was formed in 1944 that was a
national front of political parties and mass organizations such as labor unions, peasant
associations, womens and youth groups, and ethnic organizations. They remained the ruling part
until 1958 despite the civil war that occurred between the government and the communist and
ethnic groups.
Over the years four major political parties emerged, the National League for Democracy
(NLD), Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, Arakan League for Democracy and the Union
Solidarity Development Party. One of the main problems of Myanmars political parties is n
overcoming splits and nationalisms. An example is the split between NLD and the National
Dmeocratic Force. Despite NLD being the leading party their party lacks structures and
strategies that would enable young, even female talents to gain political influence and that most
of these parties have weak democratic structures. Even the NLD congress in 2013 failed to
reinvigorate its leadership despite the announcement by Aung San Suu Kyi that new blood was
needed.
Nilsen and Tonnesson felt that there is need to for a proportional representation wherein
Myanmar would have a coalition government led by National League for Democracy (NLD) and
United Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) politicians and representatives from ethnic
parties because such coalition may forge constitutional reforms that is crucial in achieving
sustainable democratic peace. The NLD is a party that emerged from values and mass
mobilization in society that has been a significant source of legitimacy and simulatenoulsy
defining the parameters for policymaking. This party headed by Aung San Suu Kyi has also
proved itself to be capable of making relative and free decisions. Suu Kyi and her party has
continuously been fighting for democracy since 1988 to present that in a span of almosty 30
years as awakened Myanmar to democracy with its very sense establishing a constitution and
holding elections. It was in 2015 where the first free elections since the military was the ruling
party in Myanmar. It was this same year where members of the NLD almost gained an absolute
majority with 179 out of 216 sears. However, due to Myanmars political history where their
military still maintains power in the government to present, since there are allocated seats for
them in the government, the military by their very own prerogative may not allow Suu Kyi and
the NLD to take control of the countrys legislative and executive branches. And eventually this
military did restrict Suu Kyi from becoming president for the very reason that her children were
British Nationals.
On the other hand, USDP, is a ruling party that has orginated from the previous military
regime and eventually has very strong decisional autonomy when it comes to society. However,
despite this, people of Myanmar who wanted this party to be held accountable in line with the
criticisms of the military and the leaders of this party, the country has not yet established an
effective democratic mechanism that would enable people to do so. According to Callhan (2012),
the people of Myanmar would either interepret this party as, an extension of the military or a
possibility that USDP has been carefully negotiating and managing the military at some point.