Foreign election observers have broadly endorsed Sunday’s poll results.
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A man takes pictures of graffiti congratulating Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party’s election victory in Mandalay.
So the NLD is set to control the parliament, unless the military-backed government and the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party attempt to manipulate the vote count. The two talked about the importance of all parties respecting the election results once announced in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Myanmar’s military establishment pledged today to ensure a smooth transition of power as Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party stood on the verge of a crushing election win.
“Congratulations … to the chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi and her party for gathering the support of the people”, read a statement posted on the Facebook page of the presidential spokesperson on Wednesday. But Suu Kyi said her NLD party may designate a president whose decisions will require prior clearance from her and the party.
It was a frequent spot on her countrywide campaign trail in recent weeks and she received a rapturous welcome on returning to the constituency after casting her ballot in central Yangon on Sunday.
Earlier Wednesday, Suu Kyi was reported as having written to opposition leaders requesting talks for “national reconciliation” – a request greeted with a Facebook response from Ye Htut saying that the government had agreed to meet.
Obama also called Thein Sein to congratulate the country on its success in conducting the elections and stressed the importance of respecting the outcome, it said.
When asked whether that might make the government run less smoothly, she said, “Why should it affect the functions of the government?”
The armed forces continue to wield considerable power in Myanmar’s political institutions, enshrined in a constitution drafted before the end of almost 50 years of rule.
The comments carry significant weight coming from the from Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, the head of a military that ruled the country for half a century with an iron fist and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 years.
Such a prospect would have been dismaying to many of her followers, since Shwe Mann was a senior figure in the previous military government that Suu Kyi fought so hard against. Since 2011, the generals have governed by proxy through the USDP, which is comprised mainly of former officers who retired to join the party.
Attention is riveted on what has been called the “magic number” for Suu Kyi’s party.
She sent similar letters to the president and the speaker of the lower house of Parliament.
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British Prime Minister David Cameron said the elections in the former British colony were an important step toward democracy and “a triumph for Burmese people, who have clearly voiced their desire for change”.
