The election commission announced constituency-by-constituency results from Sunday’s poll.
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Although determining the full results of the election may take several days, Myanmar’s election commission released the first official results Monday afternoon with 12 parliamentary seats in the Yangon region going to Suu Kyi’s NLD.
“Millions of people from around the country, many of whom were voting for the first time, seized this opportunity to move one step closer to a democracy that respects the rights of all – a testament to the courage and sacrifice shown by the people of Myanmar over many decades”, he said in a statement.
The election was a landmark in the country’s unfinished and unsteady journey to democracy from the military dictatorship that made it a pariah state for so long. Suu Kyi has said she will be the power behind the new president, regardless of a charter she has derided as “very silly”.
The Obama administration rolled back most USA economic sanctions in 2012 after a quasi-civilian government replaced a repressive junta but it still restricts business dealings with the military and dozens of cronies of the former regime.
“We’ll win tonight, we’ll stay until we win anyway”, said 24-year-old Wanna Htay, sporting a Scarlett bandana with the party’s iconic fighting peacock motif as the crowd sung and cheered around him.
Ms Suu Kyi started the contest with a sizeable handicap.
However, the NLD campaign manager in Mandalay, Shwe Hla, told The Irrawaddy that he expected his party to lose all four seats in the state in Meiktila – the scene of violence between Buddhist and Muslims in 2013 which left more than 40 people dead and displaced thousands, mostly Muslims.
A new vote was held in 2010, but the opposition boycotted it, calling the election laws unfair.
It is a travesty that Suu Kyi can’t be nominated for the presidency next year because of a clause the military forced in the constitution to bar her on the bogus grounds that she has foreign “allegiances” in the form of children who are British citizens.
National League for Democracy spokesman Win Htein said the party had won over 70% of votes counted so far, between 50 and 80% in Burma’s 14 states.
Washington welcomed the “peaceful and historic” election but nonetheless urged caution until official results were announced.
For example, no matter who forms the government, the military gets to keep control of the ministries of defense, interior and border security.
The scale of the victory has stunned the Union Solidarity Development Party which has been decimated in a mass swing to Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
“We will continue to watch the vote counting process, and encourage all parties to help ensure the tabulation is transparent and credible and any complaints are addressed promptly, transparently and appropriately”, Kerry said. “I want to remind you all that even candidates who didn’t win have to accept the winners but it is important not to provoke the candidates who didn’t win to make them feel bad”, Suu Kyi said, according to AFP.
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“In the post-elections period, it will be critical for all sides to accept the results in a spirit of national unity and reconciliation”.
