Her two sons, with her late husband Michael Aris, are British. “She also cares about rules and laws and we still need to amend the 2008 constitution”.
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Whatever her role in the country’s new democracy will be, there’s no denying that her party’s stunning victory and the smooth running of the election have been a resounding success for the 70-year old Suu Kyi. It is nearly certain to smash through that marker, with more official results due to be released on Thursday. Two months later, the military said the election had not been for seats in parliament but instead for a constitution-drafting assembly. It was replaced then by a quasi-civilian government, backed by the military.
Lower house speaker Shwe Mann, a former general once tipped as a possible compromise candidate for the presidency, also accepted the invitation to talk. National reconciliation, including reducing religious conflict, is an urgent task. “I find the people are far more politicised now than they were back, not just in 1990, but much more politicised than they were in 2012, when we campaigned for the by-election, and very much more alert to what it going on around them”, she is reported to have said.
It is gifted 25 percent of all parliamentary seats, as well as control of Myanmar’s security apparatus – meaning it will retain vast practical powers as a counterpoint to the NLD’s popular mandate.
The European Union had a team of 150 observers monitoring the election.
“Spoke to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi & congratulated her. India will be delighted to welcome her”, Modi tweeted, soon after arriving in London for a three-day visit.
The post Obama congratulates Suu Kyi on historic voting in Myanmar appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
The Wall Street Journal today writes that, “Muslims are turning out to be among the biggest losers in Myanmar’s historic elections, with many not allowed to vote and no Muslim representation in parliament”.
“There is no way of linking the situation of Myanmar to that of Cambodia”, he said.
A general election has been held in Myanmar for the first time since the transition from military rule to democratic government in 2011.
Foreign pressure of a different sort also helped lead to Myanmar’s opening. She said she thinks her party won 70 percent of the vote.
So far, the country’s election commission has only issued partial results confirming that the party won five total seats, with further results expected in waves in the coming days.
It is unclear how Suu Kyi and the generals will work together. “But that won’t stop me from making all the decisions as the leader of the winning party”. “It shouldn’t be like that”.
Such rhetoric may prove inflammatory to the military, but Suu Kyi remains the symbol of the struggle against the dictatorship, and the global face of Myanmar, despite recent controversy over her refusal to get involved in the plight of the persecuted Rohingya Muslims.
Than Yin, a 74-year-old sitting on his porch in Yangon, said he was too frail to join the crowds waiting to see Suu Kyi in person, but reading the newspaper was exciting.
It said Obama told both leaders “that the election and formation of a new government could be an important step forward in Burma’s democratic transition and the effort to forge a more peaceful and prosperous future”.
He says the White House is encouraged by signs of broad participation among women, young people and ethnic minorities.
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Talking to the BBC, Suu Kyi congratulated the people of Myanmar and said the polls were not fair but had been “largely free”.
