Current Electoral Processes in Southeast Asia - Regional Learnings

Roundtable discussion / Debate

Monday 22 May 2023
8h30 - 16h00
Faculty of Political Science,
Chulalongkorn university, Bangkok

Watch the debate

While Southeast Asia is completing a strong geopolitical sequence and the region remains a strategic area in the relations of influence in the Indo-Pacific, several countries are also focused on electoral agendas and the domestic political dynamics they impel.
The Philippines has seen the holding of a presidential election (May 2022) for which an initial assessment has yet to be made, while the general elections in Malaysia (November 2022) and the presidential one in Timor-Leste (April 2022), followed by the legislative elections in May 2023, open up new dynamics that have yet to be consolidated.
Other upcoming elections show important contrasts between countries, between polls in 2023 with results that are not very uncertain in terms of political renewal, as in Thailand (legislative elections, 14 May) and Cambodia (legislative elections, 23 July), and a campaign that is still open and whose results could lead to very different directions, as in the Indonesian archipelago (general elections in February 2024).
The conference will provide an opportunity for experts from six countries to work together to decipher the issues and consequences of these elections (including the future ones). Moreover, based on a regional perspective, it will try to draw comparisons, parallels and contrasts, and to identify broad regional trends in the functioning of electoral systems and the political institutions on which they are based.

Speakers :

• Philippines - Cleo Anne A. Calimbahin (Dpt. of Political Science, De La Salle University, Manila)
• Malaysia - Khoo Ying Hooi (Dpt. of International and Strategic Studies, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur)
• Thailand - Siripan Nogsuan Sawasdee (Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok)
• Timor-Leste - Rui Feijó (Universidade de Coimbra, Lisbon)
• Indonesia - Deasy Simandjuntak (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore)
• Cambodia - Chandarin Chum (Independent researcher, Phnom Penh)

Moderators :

• Pitch Pongsawat (Dpt. of Government, Fac. of Political Science, Chulalongkorn Univ., Bangkok)
• Jérôme Samuel (Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia, Bangkok)

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