2015 Myanmar general election

2015 Myanmar general election

← 2010 8 November 2015 2020 →

330 of the 440 seats in the House of Representatives
221 seats needed for a majority
168 of the 224 seats in the House of Nationalities
113 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Thein Sein
Party NLD USDP
Leader since 27 September 1988 2 June 2010
Leader's seat Kawhmu Did not contest
Last election Did not contest 259 R / 129 N
Seats before 37 R / 4 N 212 R / 124 N
Seats won 255 R / 135 N 30 R / 11 N
Seat change Increase 218 R / Increase 131 N Decrease 182 R / Decrease 113 N

Results of the election in the Pyithu Hluttaw, Amyotha Hluttaw, as well as State and Regional Hluttaws. Includes results of by-elections up to 2018.

President before election

Thein Sein
USDP

President after election

Htin Kyaw
NLD

General elections were held in Myanmar on 8 November 2015, with the National League for Democracy winning a supermajority of seats in the combined national parliament.[1] Voting occurred in all constituencies, excluding seats appointed by the military, to select Members of Assembly to seats in both the upper house (the House of Nationalities) and the lower house (the House of Representatives) of the Assembly of the Union, and State and Region Hluttaws. Ethnic Affairs Ministers were also elected by their designated electorates on the same day, although only select ethnic minorities in particular states and regions were entitled to vote for them.

These polls were the first openly contested election held in the country since 1990, which was annulled by the military government after the National League for Democracy's (NLD) victory. The poll was preceded by the 2010 general election, which was marred by a boycott and widespread allegations of systematic fraud by the victorious Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

The NLD won a sweeping victory, taking 86 percent of the seats in the Assembly of the Union (235 in the House of Representatives and 135 in the House of Nationalities), well more than the 67 percent supermajority needed to ensure that its preferred candidates would be elected president and second vice president in the Presidential Electoral College. While the NLD only needed a simple majority to carry on the normal business of government, it needed at least 67 percent to outvote the combined pro-military bloc in the Presidential Electoral College (the USDP and the appointed legislators representing the military). Although NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency (as both her late husband and her children are foreign citizens), she was made the de facto head of government, after being appointed to a newly created office, the State Counsellor of Myanmar.[2]

  1. ^ Jap, Jangai; Ziegfeld, Adam (1 June 2020). "Ethnic Parties in New Democracies: The Case of Myanmar 2015". Electoral Studies. 65: 102131. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102131. ISSN 0261-3794. S2CID 216417931.
  2. ^ "Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Wins Majority in Myanmar". BBC News. 13 November 2015. Archived from the original on 13 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.