PSA ParliamentsBy Liam Allmark
Last month’s election to Burma’s Pyidaungsu Hluttaw was an historic moment for the country and an important juncture in its ongoing political transition. Unlike the 2010 election which fell short of international standards and was boycotted by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), the majority of Burma’s people were this time able to exercise a real choice.
By Liam Allmark
Beginning in 2011, the inaugural session of Burma’s Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Assembly of the Union) has been the country’s first experience of a functioning legislature for almost four decades. After General Ne Win’s 1962 coup d’état abolished the post-independence parliamentary system, legislative power was exercised by the military through a succession of internal structures, appointed councils and single-party bodies. Tentative moves towards restoring an elected assembly in 1990 were quickly aborted by the ruling regime when the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) secured a resounding majority of the vote. Consequently many of those who won seats spent the following years in prison or exile.