National government
Parliament
Supplementary budget approved without opposition
For all the storm and fury directed at it, MPs on 9 December passed unopposed a supplementary budget request that amounted to 11.95 percent of the existing budget for the current financial year. Not a single program or a single kyat was cut. Finance Minister U Win ...
New idea floated to allow NLD leader to assume presidency
A new idea has been presented that would allow Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to get around a constitutional provision that bars her from the presidency. The proposal appears to be gaining ground and has now received the backing of a former senior military officer serving ...
Suu Kyi, Than Shwe discuss Myanmar's future
Myanmar election winner Aung San Suu Kyi and long-time former military junta leader Than Shwe met for more than two hours and discussed the country’s future, sources said on 6 December. The 4 December meeting at military headquarters in the political capital Nay Pyi Taw was facilitated ...
Myanmar Central Bank in spotlight over coins
The ire of MPs over the 11.95 percent supplementary budget request from the outgoing government was directed on 3 December toward the Central Bank. While its request for K59.059 billion represents just 2.3 percent of the K2.464 trillion budget proposal, MPs said it was a prime example ...
Woman MPs up, but hluttaw still 90% male
The number of women who will sit in the national parliament next year has more than doubled on current figures, but Myanmar looks set to remain at the bottom of the table in ASEAN for gender equality in national politics with women accounting for just ...
Assembly passes budget as CNRP boycotts vote
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party passed the government’s $4.3 billion budget for 2016 unopposed on 30 November as Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers followed through on a pledge to sit out the National Assembly session if concerns for their members’ safety were not addressed. The CNRP’s 55 ...
Myanmar MPs push for changes to Arms Act
Myanmar’s pre-colonial law on weapons should be updated on the basis of expert advice, two upper-house members of parliament say. U Shu Maung, Amyotha Hluttaw MP for Shan State constituency 8, said the act appeared to take different forms in upper and lower Myanmar and ...
Nationalism defeated at the ballot box
Why did self-proclaimed nationalist parties fare so badly in the election? Though the absence of opinion polls and comparable electoral data made it difficult in advance to gauge the extent of support for any party, nationalist candidates appeared to be well-organised and amply funded. The hardline ...
Cambodian groups urge 'free and fair' election pledge
A coalition of election monitoring NGOs on 19 November urged the government to endorse an international commitment to free and fair elections, and to evaluate the Kingdom’s elections according to its standards. Koul Panha, executive director of election watchdog Comfrel – part of the umbrella group Electoral ...
Delayed post-election talks put transition in doubt
President U Thein Sein appears to have delayed indefinitely a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the transfer of power to a new government following her party’s landslide election victory. A representative of the president says talks with the National League for Democracy ...
