The generals appear to have been caught flat-footed by the scope of NLD’s victory and the near-total rejection of the ruling military-backed United Solidarity and Development Party. It needs that amount because the constitution reserves 25% of seats in both houses of parliament for the army.
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Also on Monday, lawmaker and leader of the Arakan National Party (ANP) Aye Maung welcomed the NLD’s success in the general election, but cautioned that the party’s landslide victory threatened to alienate it from Myanmar’s myriad minority groups, who won little representation in parliament, including in their own ethnic states.
Experience has however made Suu Kyi wiser and she has checkmated the army at the first round by declaring the results of the election in advance from her party headquarters as the counting progressed. “She congratulated me for accepting the election result early and comforted me”, he said in a Facebook posting, with a photo of the two together smiling.
Suu Kyi herself was put under house arrest prior to the 1990 election, and spent 15 of the next 22 years mostly confined to her lakeside villa in Yangon. Voicing the hopes of many Burmese in the aftermath of the election, he said he believed Suu Kyi would bring about a transformation of fortunes for the country, where many live in poverty despite an abundance of resources.
While the administration of Thein Sein can claim a few economic achievements, these have mostly been of the low-hanging variety. “I think that’s why the military is attacking us heavily”, the group’s Major Sai La told DPA by phone.
While Shwe Mann, Thein Sein and Aung Hliang have promised a peaceful transition, the military remains determined to safeguard its interests, particularly its substantial business empires. The 2008 constitution reserves 25 per cent of the Hluttaw (parliament) seats for unelected military officers.
No – the constitution, written by the military, bars people with foreign spouses or offspring, as she does, from the top job. But Ms Suu Kyi she has repeatedly said she would lead the country anyway if the NLD won.
While an NLD majority assures it of being able to elect the president, Suu Kyi remains barred from the highest office by a constitutional provision inserted by the military before it transferred power to Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government in 2011. “Some dismissed it angrily”. When an NLD government takes power in March, she will come under mounting global pressure to take a definitive stance in their defence.
Differences could emerge, particularly over the allocation of funds in the budget to be decided by the current parliament.
Prior to the vote, there had been a common refrain in the worldwide media that these elections might not matter so much.
An Australian adviser to the NLD, Sean Turnell, told Bloomberg on November 11 that the new government will step up this program.
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“With the last government, if they built a new road, they would do it as cheaply as possible, and it would have to be replaced after a year”, she said. In any confrontation between the next NLD government and working people, the army will unerringly side with the former.
