A web documentary by Carine Jaquet and Mikaël Ferloni

Produced by MkF éditions

Chief operator and videos:

Alice Desplats, assisted by Rodolphe Chauvin
Editing :

Alice Desplats and Mikael Ferloni
Graphic creation, webdesign and integration :

Nils Brière
Logo and One Myanmar font :

Claire Mauchin
Additional editing:

Vanessa Giangrande
Jingle :

Maxime Bigot
Theme song :

Geoffroy Houssin
Translation and English subtitles :

Pauline Plancq
Translation and Burmese subtitles :

Min Taw
Additional photographs :

Rodolphe Chauvin, Michelangelo Pignani, Htet Maung Oo

Millions of thanks to Saya Renaud for sharing his knowledge from Myitkyina, to Naypyitaw; to Maël and Romain for their enthusiasm and their useful comments; to Michel Baumgartner for his rigorous corrections on spelling and style, very useful when you are typing with a QWERTY keyboard; to Thusitha Perera for his attentive proof reading; to Pyae Sone and Min Taw for their kindness, good mood and help at any time ; to Jessica and Max for their hospitality ; and eventually to our friends who believed, followed and contributed to One Myanmar’s adventure !

Warning :
The comments of the interviewees contained in this documentary only represent the opinion of their authors and do not commit the directors of the documentary in any way.

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ELECTIONS

This poll appears to be an important step towards democracy, as more than 90 political parties, and not less than 6,000 candidates, have registered to compete these elections. For the first time, a significant number of domestic and international observers will be allowed to examine the process. Yet, according to the Constitution, the Army will maintain its power with a quota of 25% for its members (for the national parliament and 33% for the regional assemblies). Once appointed, the members of the Parliament will elect the president, whose mandate should start by the end of March 2016. The political opposition is expecting a lot from these elections, but will they bring about the long awaited democratic changes ?

On the 8th of November 2015, 33.5 million Burmese will be able to vote in the General Elections. They will elect civilian representatives to the national Parliament, as well as the 14 regional Assemblies. This poll appears to be an important step towards democracy, as more than 90 political parties, and not less than 6,000 candidates, have registered to compete these elections. For the first time, a significant number of domestic and international observers will be allowed to examine the process. Yet, according to the Constitution, the Army will maintain its power with a quota of 25% for its members (for the national parliament and 33% for the regional assemblies). Once appointed, the members of the Parliament will elect the president, whose mandate should start by the end of March 2016. The political opposition is expecting a lot from these elections, but will they bring about the long awaited democratic changes?

Citizen initiatives

The Embassy of France in Myanmar supports civil society organizations involved in the preparation of 2015 general elections. The projects have been selected in the field of voter education, media capacity and election monitoring, with a strong focus on gender and marginalized population’s inclusion .

• Green Peasant Institute This Civil society organization from the southern region of Myanmar (Irrawaddy) organizes 20 trainings on Civic & Voter education to farmers and fishermen from July to October, in order to raise their awareness on their political rights few weeks before crucial elections.
• Generation Tree This young women based Civil society organization managed 15 voter education trainings in the region of Mandalay and in Mon and Shan States. Its enthousiasm and its dynamism allowed it to not only sensitize many citizens on elections' stakes, but also to ease the dialgue between communities and local authorities.
• Myanmar Centre for Inclusive Development Association dedicated to the promotion of disable people's rights, MCID is leading a study on the access to the electoral process, sentizes key stakeholders (politcal parties and medias) to the issue of accessibility via voter education training and is producing a short advocacy film on disable people's access to elections.
• Kan Baw Zar Youth Library Civil society organization and library, KBZ Youth has been travelling around the Shan State from July to September, calling for citizens to check the voter lists and organizing voter education trainings where it is most needed, in remote areas.
• Community Agency for rural Development Thanks to this civil society organization based in the remote Chin State, in the North-west of the country, ethnic population extremely isolated from 45 villages access to voter education trainings, before decisive elections.
• Media for Community This association has organized two journalist trainings with a focus on elections to ethnic women from Chin State, North-west Myanmar. This projects is not only an opportunity for the beneficiaries to develop their skills, it's also a way to facilitate the diffusion of information from isolated areas.
• Myanmar Network for Free and Fair Elections As a young civil society organization, MYNFREL rapidly became a key stakeholder in elections related matters, and is now managing a media monitoring project for elections throughout a systematic analysis of national media (TV, radio and newspaper).
• Humanity Institute Formed in 2012 by a youth group from Kachin State (Nothern part of Myanmar), Humanity Institute gathers today a University, a monthly magazine (the "Kachin Times") and a very active NGO. The later ensures long term observation of elections in Kachin State, including media monitoring and D-Day observation. Furthermore, they organized 4 political debates, unique in this country in transition.
• Generation Wave Those young activists decided to involve in election's observation. They will cover Bago's region, central Myanmar, with more than a hundred of observers - half of them being women - on election's day, coming 8th of November.
• Shwe Myitmakka Media Group This local news agency launched a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to elections in ethnic States of the country. Thus in every state the magazine "Our choice" is distributed, with information on voter educatoin and on political parties from the concerned state.
• Centre for Youth and Social Harmony This youth group is going to launch a mobile application on civic education, "I Myanmar citizen", few days ahead of the elections, with not only information on history, geography and the Constitution of Myanmar, but also with a quiz on civic education and an interaction module with members of the Parliament.
• The Irrawaddy Magazine As one of the main magazine and website for news in Myanmar, The Irrawaddy has set up a specific plan for election's covering since July, including a special page on its website.