WPR
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020
Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, attends a ceremony at the National League for Democracy’s temporary headquarters in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Sept. 8, 2020 (AP photo by Aung Shine Oo).
Myanmar is preparing to hold general elections this Sunday, an occasion that might have marked a significant milestone in its ongoing transition from decades of military rule. The previous polls, in 2015, saw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy finally win the presidency and a majority of seats in parliament, following the dissolution of the military junta in 2011. Hopes were high that Suu Kyi, who is now Myanmar’s de facto leader, would usher in a new era of peace and expanded freedoms. Yet the consensus today is that Myanmar’s democratic transition has stalled—if it can even be said to be transitioning at all.