The party headed by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday accused Myanmar’s government of intentionally delaying the results from Sunday’s election. “Our message to the people of the country on behalf of U Thein Sein is that President U Thein Sein wants to congratulate the Myanmar people for the free and fair and very peaceful election day”, Administration party spokesman U Ye Htut told the BBC.
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Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency due to a constitutional ban relating to her foreign spouse and children.
The military, which took power in a 1962 coup and brutally suppressed several pro-democracy uprisings during its rule, gave way to a nominally civilian elected government – with strings attached.
On Tuesday she said she would find a president as required, but “that won’t stop me from making all the decisions as the leader of the winning party”.
“We are just beginning to teach the world about Burmese democracy”, she said.
The government, which remains beholden to the military, is led by president Thein Sein, a former general who has been praised for initiating political and economic reforms to end Myanmar’s isolation and jumpstart its moribund economy.
The successful holding of elections in Myanmar on Sunday marked a triumph not only for the nation of 55 million but also for the cause of democracy in the world.
Dr Alice Ohnmar says the military in Burma can not be trusted to abide by the election results.
On Wednesday, election officials said the NLD took its haul to 163 of the 182 seats declared so far across the lower and upper houses.
But will the military allow Suu Kyi to govern?
The ruling Union Solidarity for Development Party (USDP), created by the former military government and led by retired officers, has already conceded defeat.
She added that a National League for Democracy Government would not be vengeful towards the military officials who have ordered human rights abuses.
Because the military still controls important political decisions, the NLD and other political parties have to cooperate with the military, said Toe Kyaw Hlaing, an independent political analyst in Myanmar.
Suu Kyi and NLD leaders “are trying to manage and control the overwhelming victory and the emotion of our people”, she says. In addition, the commission announced that the NLD had won 11 of 15 seats in four regional parliaments.
The election commission also announced that Suu Kyi had been re-elected to her seat, which was expected given the nearly divine reverence that she commands across the country.
“But I think the NLD will happily cooperate with them since one of their mandates is ‘National Reconciliation, ‘ he said”.
In the BBC interview, Ms Suu Kyi was asked why, given the events of 1990, things will be different this time.
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General elections for the Myanmar Parliament and Region and State Parliaments were held on November 8 within the framework of the 2008 Constitution and were open to worldwide observers.
