Myanmar Programme 2018 Political update 2018: The first 6 months of second year of the current NLD led government featured some hopeful signs alongside serious, remaining challenges to a peaceful and prosperous future of Myanmar. 
On the elections front: On 1 April 2017, bi-elections were organised in the country which were widely assessed to be free and fair. NLD secured 9 out of 18 seats, in contrast to its 79% overall victory two years ago. The party lost in three of the four ethnic areas it contested. The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) won six seats in Northern Shan State, USDP won two seats in Eastern Shan State and Mon State, the Arakan National Party (ANP) won a seat in western Rakhine State and the All National’s Democracy (AND) Party won a seat in eastern Kayah State.
On the political parties front: Two new political parties registered with the Union Election Commission (UEC) in the first half of 2017, the Myanmar People’s Democratic Party and the Arakan League for Democracy. Both are nationwide political parties. A number of other new political parties are preparing for registration with the UEC, amongst them one that is led and coordinated by Ko Ko Gyi, a well known and respected key player of the 88 generation student movement. During the same period, two Kayah parties (Kayah Unity Democracy Party and All Nationals’ Democracy (AND) Party Kayah State) merged under the new name as “Kayah State Democratic Party”. 
On the peace and security front: The year started with the assassination on 2017 of, U Ko Ni, the long time legal advisor of the National League for Democracy and architect behind the creation of Aung San Suu Kyi’s State Counselor position. This assassination in broad daylight at the airport of one of the country’s best known muslim citizens caused a sense of insecurity amongst the progressive/academic/muslim communities.
The serious security and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar’s troubled Northern Rakhine state, home to the country’s Rohingya ethnic minority, continued in 2018. A UN report published in February noted that the situation could amount to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing, an allegation strongly denied by the Myanmar government. This back and forth of accusations continued throughout the first half a year in 2017, and is accompanied with protests on the streets in Rakhine around visits of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Ms. Yanghee Lee and her subsequent, highly critical statements to the media and UN human rights council. Apart from the human suffering, the ongoing Rakhine crisis continues to seriously harm both Myanmar’s image on the world stage, as well as complicating the reputation of the UN and international NGOs, especially those providing assistance to the Rohingya communities. The situation deteriorated dramatically during late August, September and October.  The alleged killing early August of at least 59 innocent people resulted in 20 political parties lead by the USDP to make an announcement urging immediate action on Northern Rakhine violence. After the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked police posts late August the Tatmadaw retaliated forcefully, causing over half a million people in the region to flee to Bangladesh amidst reports of serious human rights abuses, with the UN’s top human rights official calling the operation a ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’. State Councellor Aung San Suu Kyi drew intens international criticism for her perceived silence on the crisis and failure to criticise  the army operation. The crisis also unleased a new wave of nationalism with practically all national media outlets towing the official line on the Rakhine crisis. The majority of the public appears to support to support the army’s operations in Rakhine State or at least the government’s official stance, and feels misunderstood by the international community, which focusses its attention on the faith of the half a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and unknown numbers in the North of Rakhine, not on the few thousand non-Rohingya IDP victims of the conflict (the opposite is the case in the national media). This has led to a heightened suspicion amongst the general public that international humanitarian organisations and NGOs are ‘supporting the terrorists’, as alleged in the media and even the government itself.
The strain of the ongoing instability, compounded by the perceived lack of a grand economic strategy of the new government has become visible in the economy as well, with the world bank publishing data showing real-term economic growth in 2016 at 6.5%, down 1.3 percentage point from a year earlier. The same report revised downward the expected economic growth for Myanmar in 2017 from 8.4% to 6.9%, with a slowdown in exports and FDI being the main causes. Political actors are defined as the combined main target group of the Strategic Partnership: - (representatives of) political parties - politicians - (Members of) Parliament and its Committees - Other elected representatives at local levels. NIMD will primarily focus on political parties.