Nobel Peace Prize-laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has swept to victory in Myanmar’s general election. Results have trickled in since the weekend, and on Friday the election commission announced the latest batch of seats that pushed the NLD over the threshold to secure an absolute majority in parliament.
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The NLD has so far won 110 seats in the 228-seat upper house, according to Myanmar Times, where only 168 seats were up for election.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has won 163 of lower house seats declared as of Wednesday morning, compared with just 10 seats for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party.
Recording her appreciation for the incumbent President Thein Sein, Gandhi said that without his statesman like leadership and guidance, this democratic transition would not have been possible.
The Myanmar armed forces, or Tatmadaw, also has an automatic hold of a quarter of seats in parliament, meaning the opposition needed to win at least 329 seats to make up a majority (67%) of both houses.
A comfortable majority gives Suu Kyi’s party control of the lower and upper houses, allowing it to elect the president and form the government.
The NLD landslide – which means it will form a government on its own – has spoiled hopes by ethnic parties that they would be kingmakers in national politics, trading support for cabinet seats and a strong say in efforts to unwind the country’s highly centralised government.
Beijing has for decades been close to neighbouring Myanmar’s authoritarian military leaders, who voters overwhelmingly rejected in historic polls.
Suu Kyi and her party have not succeeded in amending the country’s constitution, but in the wake of her party’s landslide she is looking to govern from a position – in her own words – “above the president”.
Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by the military-drafted constitution which prevents persons whose spouse or children hold foreign citizenship from becoming president.
It promises a new dawn for a country asphyxiated by half a century of army rule that battered the economy and repressed its people.
Mr Obama and Mr Ban also praised President Thein Sein for successfully staging the historic poll, with the United Nations chief acknowledging his “courage and vision” to organise an election in which the ruling camp was trounced.
Nyan Win said the NLD would use the meeting to get a better sense of “how to build a new government”, adding that the party also plans to tap “intellectuals” to lead its ministries and will begin to hammer out “laws to develop the country” after forming its administration.
This land sliding victory of NLD has put an end to the military backed rule for many decades.
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She was finally freed on November 13, 2010, days after fresh elections brought the prospect of political reform in Myanmar, led by new President Thein Sein.
