Mr Kihong Mun1
1The University Of Sydney, , Australia
Authoritarian regimes increasingly adopt democratic institutions such as elections. Unlike the expectation that this would more liberalise authoritarian rule, the trend has led to the theory of electoral authoritarianism. However, even elections under authoritarian regimes, the opposition can win in an election. While electoral results are rarely contentious, those under authoritarianism could be controversial. In this regard, the paper throws a question: what are the consequences of the opposition winning in the election? This research focuses on general elections in Myanmar and analyses on the aftermath of elections which produced authoritarian losing election. I argue that subsequent power-relinquishing from authoritarian to the civilian after the election would not happen without the protection mechanism for outgoing military authoritarians. The paper compares two general elections the 1990 and the 2015 elections which produced the same results of the landslide victory of the opposition but brought about two different outcomes in terms of ceding power to the civilian winner. By analysing three factors, institutional protection for outgoing authoritarians, viable oppositions, and free and fairness of the election, the tentative findings reinforce the argument: the presence of the protection mechanism for outgoing authoritarians is necessary for authoritarians to accept electoral defeats and relinquish power.
Biography: to come