Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s opposition leader has requested meetings with the military-backed government next week to discuss national reconciliation in the country.
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The question no longer appears to be whether Ms Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition will win Myanmar’s first free election in decades, but whether it will be the landslide needed to govern the country and enact promised changes.
Myanmar’s Union Election Commission said that Suu Kyi had won her rural constituency seat of Kawhmu with 54,676 votes, as election results trickle in from across the country.
Myanmar political experts say the NLD needs to capture two-thirds of the parliamentary seats to overcome the military’s veto in the bicameral legislature, known as the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, which selects the president.
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One of the first NLD winners to be announced is feminist and pro-democracy activist Zin Mar Aung.
In a letter released by her party Wednesday, Suu Kyi affirmed the election victory, which has yet to be officially endorsed by the country’s election commission. Both sides agreed to hold negotiations after the election commission announces the final results of the vote, expected later this month.
By the afternoon election officials had handed the NLD another 48 seats, taking its tally to 211 of the 232 seats announced so far.
While Suu Kyi won the last election too, in 1990, the government didn’t respect the results and put her under house arrest.
But it turns out that a large swath of Myanmar’s 51 million people have not given up on the promise of 1988.
Correspondents said Ms Suu Kyi was treading carefully despite her apparent landslide victory.
But while an NLD victory virtually assures it of being able to elect the president as well, Ms Suu Kyi remains barred from the role by a constitutional provision inserted by the military before it transferred power to a quasi-civilian government in 2011.
Wednesday’s results also revealed the NLD had made gains across diverse areas of the country, despite earlier speculation that many from Myanmar’s 40% ethnic minority populations would vote for smaller parties, hampering the NLD’s chances of a majority. A Suu Kyi-led government would also face the triple challenge of sky-high expectations at home, scepticism overseas about its capability to run an economy still emerging from decades of neglect, and a military that retains significant political power.
“Daw Suu can convince them”, he said, referring to Suu Kyi with an honorific.
“The times are different”.
However, she said the rights of Muslims will be protected by an NLD government and anybody promoting hatred should be prosecuted. It would be hard to eradicate prejudice, but people “do not want to live on a diet of hatred and fear”, she told the BBC.
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By late afternoon on Monday, vendors outside the headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the commercial capital Yangon were selling red T-shirts with Suu Kyi’s face and the words “We won”.
