Elections to the Legislative Council were held in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

on 17 November 1925. Under the terms of the

dyarchy Diarchy (from Greek , ''di-'', "double", and , ''-arkhía'', "ruled"),Occasionally misspelled ''dyarchy'', as in the ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' article on the colonial British institution duarchy, or duumvirate (from Latin ', "the office of ...

constitution, the

Legislative Council of Burma The Legislative Council of Burma was the legislative body of British Burma from 1897 to 1936. Establishment It was established in 1897 as an advisory council to the British colonial governor, the Lieutenant-Governor of Burma, in drafting legisla ...

was advisory to the British colonial governor, and had some direct authority over education, local government, public health, agriculture and forests. The Nationalist Party received the most votes, but was unable to form a government as the British authorities favoured the Independent Party, who formed a government led by

Joseph Augustus Maung Gyi Sir Joseph Augustus Maung Gyi ( my, ဆာ ဂျိုးဇက် အော်ဂပ်စတပ် မောင်ကြီး; 12 December 1871 – 9 March 1955) was a Burmese barrister, judge, politician and administrator who served as the A ...

.Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
The Irrawaddy, 3 November 2009

Electoral system

The Legislative Council had 103 members, of which 80 were elected; 58 "non-communal" seats elected by a common roll, and 24 "communal" seats reserved for ethnic minorities (eight for Indians, five for

Karens The Karen, kjp, ပ်ုဖၠုံဆိုဒ်, my, ကရင်လူမျိုး, , th, กะเหรี่ยง ( ), also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language ...

, one European and one

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...

) and business groups (two for the Burma Chamber of Commerce, and one each for the Burmese Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Indian Chamber of Commerce, the Rangoon Trades Association and

Rangoon University '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

).Ganga Singh (1940) ''Burma Parliamentary Companion'', British Burma Press, p38 A further 21 seats were appointed by the Governor (a maximum of 14 of which could be government officials) and there were also two ''ex officio'' members, the two members of the Executive Council of the Governor.

Campaign

The Burmese branch of the

Swaraj Party The Swaraj Party, established as the ''Congress-Khilafat Swaraj Party'', was a political party formed in India on 1 January 1923 after the Gaya annual conference in December 1922 of the National Congress, that sought greater self-government and ...

led by Toke Gyi put forward 20 candidates."Elections In Burma. Grouping Of Parties", ''The Times'', 13 November 1925, p11, Issue 44118 The Independent Party had 85 candidates, whilst there were 49 Nationalist Party candidates running.

Results

The Swaraj Party performed poorly, with Toke Gyi defeated in his constituency."News in Brief", ''The Times'', 25 November 1925, p15, Issue 44128 Voter turnout was just 16%, although this marked an increase on the turnout of 6.9% in the 1922 elections.The Ghost of Elections Past
The Irrawaday, 31 May 2010 This was put down to the success of elected politicians in amending controversial laws during their period in office, as well as an increase in the number of political parties.

References

{{Burmese elections

Elections in Myanmar 1925 in Burma Burmese Election and referendum articles with incomplete results