Myanmar’s president has vowed to abide by the law to ensure a smooth transition to a new government next year, after his ruling party was trounced in the general election.
Advertisement
While complete results from Sunday’s vote still must be tallied, the state election commission announced that Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party had won 37 additional seats – pushing it over the threshold of 329 seats needed for a majority in the two-house Parliament.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party has now secured enough seats in the Parliament seats to control the body and choose the country’s president, official results Friday showed as votes were still being tallied.
“I hope that things will get a little bit better”, said Noor Bagum, a 28-year-old mother-of-five, whose village was destroyed during violence between Buddhists and Muslims that swept through Myanmar’s western Rakhine State in 2012.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win welcomed the confirmation of his party’s victory, saying that even though it was expected, it would now give the party more freedom to act.
While Ms Suu Kyi has been criticised for relative passivity regarding the systematic persecution of Rohingya Muslims in the country, several days before the election she did promise to protect minorities isolated in “ethnic ghettoes”, which was widely interpreted as addressing Rohingya’s plight.
It has been criticized by Burma’s new leader-in-waiting Aung San Suu Kyi and raises questions over what decisions the outgoing ruling party will to try push through before they hand over power.
A few believe it was introduced to allow USDP leaders to undermine the ousted chairman Shwe Mann, who was engaged in a leadership struggle with President Thein Sein. This set the stage for Mandela-De Clerk style partnership between Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein.
The result sends a “strong signal to the military that the writing is on the wall and your domination is coming to an end”, said political analyst Khin Zaw Win.
Thein Sein has promised a trouble-free transition and reconciliation talks with Suu Kyi at an undisclosed time.
It wants the military to relinquish its enshrined political role and scrap a clause that prevents Suu Kyi from becoming president because of her sons’ British citizenship.
He appeared sanguine about the resounding defeat of his army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which will slip into opposition in the next parliament – due to sit from February.
Myanmar held historic general elections on November 8 and the NLD has won two-tjirds majority in the two-house parliament and thereby the right to form the new government.
As the military and its associates have enriched themselves by exploiting the country’s natural resources, such as copper and jade, much of the rest of the population has remained in impoverished isolation for decades.
Advertisement
So far the signs are positive, said Dr Khin, adding the NLD had a “once-in-a-century” chance to steer Myanmar towards a brighter future.
