Myanmar Democratisation
Myanmar is presently witnessing a major change towards democratic values. The National League for Democracy (NLD) under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi has won Myanmar’s Presidential election with a big margin. NLD won 80 percent of the seats both in the Lower House as well as in the Upper House of the parliament. Along with that they won 75 percent of seats in the regional legislatures. Myanmar had over five decades of military rule and about four years of ‘guided democracy’ or semi-democracy. After such a long period of military rule transition to democracy towards democracy is not complete in Myanmar. Though the president and one vice-president in the new administration will be of NLD’s choice, the second vice-president will be chosen by the military. Similarly, the military will retain control over the three top ministries - defence, home and border affairs. All this will have significant impact on Myanmar’s relationship with other countries. India will also have to balance its approach because problem of insurgency has significant relation with Myanmar’s defence and border affairs ministry.