Suu Kyi’s party the National League for Democracy (NLD) has won almost 90 per cent of the seats, the results of which have been declared so far.
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Ms Suu Kyi, however, will not become the president because of a constitutional hurdle inserted by the junta when it transferred power in 2011 to a quasi-civilian government.
While Myanmar’s people voted overwhelmingly Sunday to remove the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party from power, it’s clear that the army’s involvement in politics won’t end, and the NLD will need to convince it to cooperate.
A man looks at a graffiti congratulating Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party’s election victory Wednesda…
“It is crucial for the dignity of the nation that the people’s will, which was shown in the election of November 8, be truly implemented in a peaceful and stable manner”, she wrote in the letter, which was dated Tuesday.
In response, Thein Sein said he has agreed to Suu Kyi’s request to hold reconciliation talks soon, although the two sides are still to agree on the time and location of the negotiations. “It’s just a question of when”.
Analysts say hard months lie ahead, with the charter gifting the army a parliamentary bloc to obstruct changes, key security posts and block Suu Kyi’s political ascent. But Suu Kyi said her NLD party may designate a president whose decisions will require prior clearance from her and the party.
The country’s military junta had also prevented her from travelling overseas to receive the Nobel Prize.
Suu Kyi, however, has vowed to rule from “above the president”, indicating she will use a proxy to sidestep the bar on her reaching top office.
But Suu Kyi said Tuesday in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation that she did not believe that would happen this time. She has repeatedly said she would make all the decisions as the leader of the winning party, while entrusting the presidency to a colleague.
Still, there are major concerns about whether a Suu Kyi-led government will listen to ethnic voices across the wildly diverse country.
The army is automatically given 25 percent of all parliamentary seats under a constitution scripted to ensure its stake in the future.
The NLD has said it is on course for over 250 seats in the lower house. Reuters was not able to independently verify the party’s estimates of its own performance.
Leading ruling party figures such as Shwe Mann and Htay Oo, the acting party chairman, have already conceded defeat in their constituencies.
Questions have come up over how free and fair Sunday’s election will turn out to be.
The gains were so strong that a 53-year-old regional parliamentary candidate for the NLD won against the ruling party’s runner despite the fact that he died two days before the election while delivering a campaign speech.
The interior ministry gives him control of the pervasive bureaucracy, which could pose a significant obstacle to the NLD’s ability to execute policy. The government’s chief ceasefire negotiator, Aung Min, was among the heavyweight politicians that lost in the elections.
The landmark election is seen as a test of the powerful military’s willingness to let the country continue along a path toward full democracy, after decades of military-dominated rule in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
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Money from overseas flowed in quickly as sanctions were eased. The president will be elected by the parliament early next year.
