2. Is popularity waning for the National League for Democracy (NLD)?
This is the source of some conjecture and hard to measure despite the figures from the two previous elections (in 1990 at the annulled general election the NLD won 392 of 492 seats and 52.5 percent of the national vote; in 2011 they won 43 of the 45 seats or 66 percent of the vote). However there has been some recent fumbling which may see voters turn against them:
– the party list has shunned potential big name candidates and does not include a single Muslim, suggesting they have been influenced by hard-line Buddhist elements;
– the NLD banned candidates from speaking to the media for three weeks, thereby suggesting there was a lack of democracy in a pro-democracy party;
– the NLD has not offered an alternative candidate for the presidency even though Suu Kyi can’t run (as explained above);
– while Suu Kyi remains a democracy icon and is widely popular, there are some reports that attitudes towards her remain mixed, particularly on her failure to speak about the treatment of the Rohingya. The Burmese youth are not necessarily guaranteed to vote for her either.