Suu Kyi’s govt faces first test in by-polls
Aung San Suu Kyi’s government faced its first test at the ballot box on Saturday in by-elections around Myanmar seen as a barometer for growing disillusionment with her party’s first year in power.
The euphoria that surrounded her landslide electoral win in 2015 has ebbed as her party struggles to push through promised reforms.
Discontent is particularly acute in ethnic minority areas where many see Suu Kyi as working too closely with the military, which ran the country for 50 years and still controls key levers of government.
With only 19 seats up for election, the poll is unlikely to alter the balance of power in a government firmly dominated by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
But the voting may offer a glimpse of the public’s view on the NLD’s first year in office -- a rocky 12 months marked by a surge in border unrest and disappointing economic gains.
Hundreds of voters lined up outside polling stations on the outskirts of Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon Saturday, though the scenes lacked the fanfare and enthusiasm of the historic 2015 election.
The party will face its toughest challenge to the north in Shan State, where tens of thousands have been displaced by recent fighting between the army and ethnic insurgents.
Myanmar’s economic and political elite, including the NLD, have long been dominated by the majority Bamar ethnicity.
“Now more people think MPs from ethnic parties should be in parliament,” said local Nyan Soe, who was among tens of thousands who protested over the bridge.