Myanmar was trapped in a post-election limbo Tuesday with official results barely trickling in, although opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party claimed a victory massive enough to give it the presidency and loosen the military’s grip on the country.
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Election authorities have so far announced only a small fraction of the results, but the National League for Democracy has scooped the lion’s share of those seats, boosting enthusiasm in the crowds in front of party headquarters in Yangon.
All eyes have been on whether or not NLD leader Suu Kyi can mark decades of democratic protest with a remarkable election victory against the ruling party, Union of Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). “It shouldn’t be like that”, he said.
Almost two full days after voting ended, the election commission, which did not immediately respond to the accusation, had released results for only about 50 seats in the 664-member Parliament.
If the early results hold true for the rest of the country, the NLD will form Myanmar’s first democratically-elected government since the early 1960s.
The NLD won all 32 out of the first 32 seats announced for Myanmar’s lower house, plus three out of four seats for the regional assemblies, prompting celebratory scenes among supporters outside party headquarters in Yangon.
The military has ruled the country with an iron fist for half a century, killing, jailing and silencing dissenters and flat-lining the economy with madcap policies and rampant corruption, before stepping aside in 2011 in favour of a quasi-civilian regime.
Close to 7,000 people from 91 political parties ran for office in Sunday’s election.
It is true that Thein Sein, the current military ruler, is light years ahead of his predecessor, Than Shwe especially where it concerns his relations with Suu Kyi.
The NLD won those handily, too, but the result was swiftly annulled and Ms. Suu Kyi, the Western-educated daughter of Aung San, Burma’s independence hero, was consigned to house arrest in her lakeside home in Rangoon for the better part of two decades.
Suu Kyi, however, has said she will act as the country’s leader if the NLD wins the presidency, saying she will be “above the president”.
Ms Suu Kyi will also have to work with the army, whose parliamentary bloc is flanked by a fearsome reputation. “It’s a clear win”, said Sitida, a 37-year-old Buddhist monk in the central city of Mandalay who marched in the country’s 2007 “Saffron Revolution” protests that were bloodily crushed by the junta. I respect her so much.
Suu Kyi, who could be named speaker of the lower house of parliament, is barred from becoming president because of a clause added to the constitution that excludes anyone with close foreign relatives from holding the high office. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has to take responsibility now…
“There are a few imperfections – to put it mildly. There’s also no denying the rather dramatic change we’ve seen inside of Burma”.
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European Union Election Observation Mission to Myanmar chief Alexander Graf Lambsdorff speaks during a press briefing in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday, November 10, 2015.
