Outline: On 8 November Myanmar went to the polls. While official results are still being announced, it is clear that as in the last freely contested general election of 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has won by a landslide. The incumbent army-established Union Solidarity and Development Party, which secured government via a stage-managed election in 2010 that the NLD boycotted, has suffered a heavy defeat. With a couple of exceptions, ethnic minority parties have also fared poorly.

Although the international community has praised the conduct of the elections, the biggest test of Myanmar’s political transition away from military dictatorship and towards democratic government is yet to come. Will the military concede to government by the NLD? What are the implications of the NLD win for the nationwide ceasefire process? Who will be president? And what of Suu Kyi’s remarks that whoever the president is, she will be above him? Join a panel of scholars and specialists from the ANU Myanmar Research Centre to get answers, and learn what the election results mean for Myanmar.

Event starts with light lunch at 1pm. Panel commences at 1.30pm. The event is free and open to the public.

About the Panelists

Morten Pedersen is a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra.

Naing Ko Ko is a PhD candidate at the Regulatory Institutions Network, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific (CAP).

Janelle Saffin is a visiting fellow at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, CAP, ANU, and a former Australian Member of Parliament at both the state (NSW) and federal levels.

Khin Maung Yin is a PhD candidate at UNSW, Canberra.

Nicholas Farrelly is a fellow in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, CAP, ANU, and the director of the ANU Myanmar Research Centre.

Khin Khin Mra is a master’s degree candidate at the Crawford School of Public Policy, CAP, ANU.

Trevor Wilson is a visiting fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change, CAP, ANU, and a former Australian Ambassador to Myanmar.

Khin Thidar Aye is a PhD candidate in the Department of International Relations, CAP, ANU.

This event is jointly hosted by the ANU’s Myanmar Research Centre (MRC), and the Department of Political and Social Change (PSC). For inquires, contact Nick Cheesman, nick.cheesman@anu.edu.au.