“After all the election tasks of the Union Election Commission will be completed, we will arrange for the talks” with Suu Kyi, a spokesman for the government, Ye Htut, said in a statement. He said the government and the military will respect the results of the “free and fair elections”.
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Myanmar’s military, which took power in a 1962 coup and brutally suppressed several pro-democracy uprisings during its rule, gave way to the nominally civilian elected government led by Thein Sein in 2011 – with strings attached.
China, Myanmar’s powerful northern neighbor and a traditional close ally of its military, is praising the conduct of the election and pledging to maintain friendly relations, even while refraining to comment on the outcome.
Under a law critics say was meant to prevent Suu Kyi from heading the country, the president can not have a foreign-born spouse or children. The statement, delivered in a Facebook post, appeared to be an official concession of defeat by the president, a former general who has led the military-backed government for the past five years.
The letters, shared by the NLD, come as her democracy movement continued its blitz of ruling party bases following Sunday’s poll.
But complicating any efforts to change the rules in the future, the military also has an effective veto over any proposed constitutional changes.
Of the 536 seats, 179 are in the House of Representatives (Lower House), 77 in the House of Nationalities (Upper House) and 280 in the Region or State Parliament, according to the Union Election Commission (UEC), reported Xinhua news agency.
NLD senior member and party spokesperson U Win Htein told The Myanmar Times that the NLD believed that it had won 82 percent of townships across the country. By this morning, the NLD had swept up 273 seats, 56 short of an outright majority.
As the announcement was made, the NLD seemed poised for a massive victory after a 25-year democracy struggle, and on the brink of a majority after taking more than 85 percent of the seats declared so far. NLD is also well ahead in the upper house and regional assemblies.
“We don’t want to see a military government any longer”.
The army simply swatted away that result and tightened its grip on the country, jailing dissidents and confining Suu Kyi to house arrest.
Carter Center election monitors said the elections were competitive and meaningful in many areas. “They are the important group in Parliament that shouldn’t be ignored. There must be cooperation and the NLD will have to convince the military to cooperate with them”. However, the military will appoint a quarter of all lawmakers in both houses of the parliament.
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The military and the largest parties in the parliament will nominate candidates for president in February of next year. The top vote-getter will be president, while the two runners-up will be vice presidents.
