At stake in this election:       

• The 330 elected seats in the House of Representatives (Pyithu Hluttaw)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President THEIN SEIN*
• Head of Government: President THEIN SEIN
• Myanmar has a bicameral Assembly of the Union (Pyidaungsu), which consists of the House of Nationalities (Amyotha Hluttaw) with 224 seats and the House of Representatives (Pyithu Hluttaw) with 440 seats.

*THEIN SEIN was elected president by the 2010 parliament. Three presidential candidates are nominated: one by the upper house, one by the lower house and one by the military members of the parliament. Parliament then holds elections for president. Each Member of Parliament from both houses will cast a single vote for his or her preferred presidential candidate of the three candidates. The candidate with the most votes will become the President, and the other two candidates will become Vice Presidents.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is indirectly elected by parliament.
• In the House of Nationalities (Amyotha Hluttaw), 168 members are elected by absolute majority vote in single-member constituencies and 56 members are appointed from the military. All members serve five year terms.  In the House of Representatives (Pyithu Hluttaw), 330 members are elected by absolute majority vote in single-member constituencies and 110 members are appointed from the military to serve five year terms.**

Parties running the most candidates in the electoral race:

• Party: Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)
  • Leader: THEIN SEIN
• Party: National League for Democracy (NLD)
  • Leader: Aung San SUU KYI
• Party: National Unity Party (NUP)
  • Leader: Than TIN
• Party: The National Democratic Force (NDF)
  • Leader: Khin Maung SWE

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 51,486,253 (2014)[2]
• Registered voters: approximately 33,5000,000 million (2015)

Gender Data:

• Female Population: 26,661,667 (2014)[3]
• Is Myanmar a signatory to CEDAW: N/A[4]
• Has Myanmar ratified CEDAW: Yes (22 July 1997)[5]
• Gender Quota: No[6]
• Female Candidates in this election: Yes
• Number of Female Legislators: 26 (5.9%) of 440 seats of the House of Representatives[7]
• Human Development Index (HDI) Position: 150[8]
• Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: High[9]

Disability Data:

• Is Myanmar a signatory to CRPD: N/A[10]
• Has Myanmar ratified CRPD: 7 December 2011[11]

Population with a disability: 2,311,250[12]

[1] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33441000

[2]  http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/census/2010_phc/Myanmar/MMR-2015-05.pdf

[3] Ibid.

[4] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en

[5] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en

[6] http://www.quotaproject.org/uid/search.cfm#

[7] http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm

[8] http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-1-human-development-index-and-its-components

[9] http://genderindex.org/country/myanmar

[10] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=iv-15&chapter=4&lang=en

[11] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=iv-15&chapter=4&lang=en

[12]  http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sources/census/2010_phc/Myanmar/MMR-2015-05.pdf