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Aung San Suu Kyi calls for reconciliation with Myanmar rulers

By Wednesday evening, the Union Election Commission had announced the results of 216 lower house races, of which 179 were won by the NLD.

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The final results to the most democratic elections in the history of Myanmar in past 25 years would take days to come, but the current results and probabilities put to the expectation that the party would win around 75% of the seats.

Suu Kyi, who spent a total of 15 years under house arrest in Yangon under military rule, entered parliament through a 2012 by-election in Kawhmu, a rural hamlet near Yangon, two years after her release.

Obama called Sein and ” congratulated the president and the entire government on having been able to hold a historic free and fair general election”, Information Minister Ye Htut said on his Facebook page.

In letters published in local media, Suu Kyi had requested a joint meeting with the commander in chief of Myanmar’s armed forces, the chairman of the parliament and Thein Sein.

Correspondents say Ms Suu Kyi is treading carefully despite her apparent landslide victory.

“The Lady”, as she is known, has indicated she will make the decisions even if someone else has to be president.

The commission also announced that Suu Kyi had been reelected to her seat, which was expected given the nearly divine reverence that she commands across the country.

While a win of that magnitude virtually assures the National League for Democracy (NLD) of electing the president as well, Suu Kyi is barred from becoming president by a constitutional hurdle inserted by the junta when it transferred power in 2011 to a quasi-civilian government.

With the NLD poised to break the army’s grip on direct control of the government, the election is proving to be the biggest test yet of just how much influence the military is willing to relinquish after a half-century rule that left Myanmar one of the poorest nations in Southeast Asia. This was corroborated by a senior NLD officer who told the Guardian the party won 82 percent of the contested seats based on unofficial counts.

She said last week she would be “above the President” if her party won the parliamentary election.

Aung San Suu Kyi took a step closer to victory yesterday after Burma’s president promised a “peaceful transfer” of power.

A street vender holds a calendar featuring Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a Yangon street, Myanmar, Thursday, November 12, 2015. However, the military will appoint a quarter of all lawmakers in both houses of the parliament.

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However, she has recently expressed a desire to become the country’s de facto leader.

Romeo Gacad—AFP