"Myanmar’s election commission announced last week that general elections would be held on 6 November 2020–––the third since political reforms were initiated in 2010. Over 90 political parties are likely to contest a total of 1,171 seats in both houses of union parliament and in the state/regional legislatures. Discussions on the upcoming election have so far focused on the two major political parties–––the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)–––around issues on whether the NLD would be able to retain power or if the military-backed USDP would be able to make a comeback. Even as the NLD and the USDP are likely to remain the two largest parties in post-November elections, there is a sense in some quarters that neither may win enough seats to form government and this may throw up opportunities for smaller political and ethnic parties to decide who forms the next government in Myanmar. Three factors are key for the smaller political and ethnic-based parties to turn the elections in their favour. First, this will be more a function of the performance of NLD and USDP. Second, emergence of new parties and alliances and how they will affect the performance of the two major parties and lastly, electoral strategies ethnic-based parties..."