Myanmar voters will go to the polls this fall in what could be the most important elections in the country’s history. These elections will choose representatives for the national parliament’s upper and lower houses, as well as assemblies in Myanmar’s fourteen regions and states. Subsequently, an electoral college of parliamentarians, including representatives from the armed forces, will choose the country’s next president. Will the elections be free and fair? Which forces will influence the build-up to the elections? What is the election’s likely outcome? These questions will be explored in a conversation with Thura Shwe Mann, speaker of Myanmar’s lower house of parliament and possible presidential candidate. Vikram Nehru of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace will moderate.

This event is being jointly supported by the Asia Society Policy Institute, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Southeast Asia Studies Department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Speakers:

Thura Shwe Mann is a Myanmar politician who was appointed speaker of the lower house of Myanmar’s parliament in 2011 and became Union Parliament speaker in 2013. As chairman of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party he is likely to be a presidential contender in the 2015 elections. Thura Shwe Mann’s earlier career was in the military and he became the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Services with the rank of general in 2003. He was the third highest ranking member of the State Peace and Development Council, the military government that ruled Myanmar until 2011.

Vikram Nehru is a senior associate in the Asia Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. An expert on development economics, growth, poverty reduction, debt sustainability, governance, and the performance and prospects of East Asia, his research focuses on economic, political, and strategic issues confronting Asia, particularly Southeast Asia.