Myanmar’s 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 are the elections’ likely outcomes?

These questions were explored in a conversation with Thura Shwe Mann, speaker of Myanmar’s lower house of parliament and possible presidential candidate. Vikram Nehru of the the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace moderated.

This was the first in a series of events to be held this year focusing on Myanmar’s 2015 elections, which is jointly supported by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Asia Society Policy Institute, and the Southeast Asia Studies Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.