Myanmar’s election panel has released results showing that Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party has secured a historic majority in Myanmar’s Parliament. Votes are still being tallied. Suu Kyi’s two sons are British, as was her late husband. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
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Supporters had gathered to cheer, hug, wave red balloons and flags emblazoned with the NLD logo – a fighting peacock and white star on a red background.
There is a growing belief that change has come and that 53 million people might finally be free to follow their dreams and a quietly spoken 70-year-old woman with flowers in her hair. The military’s bloc will also be able to effectively pick the second vice president and the armed forces will retain control over the home and defense ministries and border areas.
Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy party bash, smiles to her supporters after delivering a speech from a balcony of her party bash headquarters in Yangon, Myanmar.
No problem, Suu Kyi said at a news conference shortly before the election. U.S. President Barack Obama called Suu Kyi on Wednesday to congratulate her on her lead and commend her “tireless efforts” on behalf of Myanmar.
The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which was formed by the old military junta, has admitted defeat.
The NLD has also won significant majorities in the regional and state assemblies.
In Myanmar’s semi-democratic, semi-authoritarian system, the military holds an inviolable position.
The first session of the new parliament is expected to take place in January 2016, followed by the election of a new president in February and formation of a new government in March.
During the election campaign, there was no mention of her design for the administration, and no concrete policies have been revealed.
Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest, after the military overturned an election in 1990, in which the NLD won a majority of the vote.
The key to the junta’s foothold is in the constitution it rewrote in 2008. Others say she’s obeying the will of the people and subverting a military-dictated constitutional clause meant to lock her out of power.
Though Aung San Suu Kyi’s (NLD) party has won in the recent elections in Mayanmar, as per the constitution she can’t become the president of the country.
Mohammed Solim, 32, who like many camp residents was angry at being deprived of the right to vote, said: “We hope that since the NLD won, we will get freedom”.
“It must be reviewed because it’s too extreme…review that law and make necessary amendments so that we consider those people who are already in our country, maybe second generation, so they will be considered as citizens”, Win Htein told Reuters. Government hospitals and schools have suffered from years of neglect.
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“Since this remark is usually made with a sympathetic and often admiring smile, we do not take offence”, Suu Kyi said about the cowshed reference. Thousands of the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority, considered stateless, remain trapped in camps after violent outbreaks in 2012, an issue hardly discussed by the main candidates. Party executives have been sorting out transition plans, making arrangements to meet soon with President Thein Sein, House Speaker Shwe Mann, and the real power behind the government, army commander Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.
