The 2015 parliamentary and 2016 presidential elections in Myanmar

Mandalay, Myanmar: The remaking of a South-east Asian hub in a country at the crossroads

“…A profile of Mandalay would be incomplete without contextualizing recent social and economic developments in the broader, multiple transitions that the whole country has been experiencing since 2011. Although space constraints do not allow a full account of such events (Huang, 2017;ICG 2016;Kim, 2016) 2014Religious buildings include the pagodas (paya), and monasteries and community halls (zayat and dammayon) that pre-existed the founding of the city. Although they literally 'pepper' the city, these are primarily located along the river (western side of town), at the foot of various factories for armaments, rice mills, sugar mills, cotton ginning mill, many of which were built under King Mingdon.…”

“…After over five decades of a brutal authoritarian regime, in 2011 the generals formally handed over power to a nominally civilian government (though still dominated by former generals). This kick-started political liberalizations, which eventually gave way to the 2015-2016 elections and the formation of a new government in the spring of 2016(Fumagalli, 2017b;ICG, 2016;Kim, 2016). The first free and fair elections in over 50 years(since 1960) led to a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy and the crushing defeat of the until then ruling and military-supported USDP.…”