This election victory is best seen as the start of a negotiation process between people power and the entrenched, constitutionally guaranteed power of the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s much-feared army. Suu Kyi has said that a civilian from the party will be up for the post shall the NLD win, although she has indicated she will lead the government from Parliament.
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The drip-feed of election results has brought frustration to NLD supporters, many of whom have waited 25 years since the party last contested a poll to cast their vote.
NLD officials believe the party has won up to 80 per cent of votes across the country that was ruled for half a century by despotic army generals before they allowed a transfer of power to a quasi-civilian government in 2011.
In her separate letters to the three ruling figures, Suu Kyi said the dialogue aimed to peacefully satisfy the desire of the people expressed through Sunday’s general election.
Obama also called Thein Sein to congratulate the country on its success in conducting the elections and stressed the importance of respecting the outcome, it said.
It also means that Myanmar is likely to soon have its first government in decades that is not under the military’s sway. It is unclear how Aung San Suu Kyi and the generals will work together.
The USDP, which has been in power in Myanmar since 2011, has taken 10 of the 491 seats being contested in both houses of parliament, compared to 163 by the NLD.
This won’t do away with the military’s constitutional straightjacket, but it will free the Burmese people to assert more basic rights over time, burnish the NLD’s reform credentials, and ensure the people’s support for the long struggle ahead against entrenched military power.
Suu Kyi has also invited the powerful army chief to hold reconcilitation talks, but he has yet to respond to the letter.
Suu Kyi said earlier in the week that she still can be the country’s de-facto leader, making “all the decisions” as head of the winning party.
One of the biggest sources of tension between Suu Kyi and the military is a clause in the constitution that bars her from the presidency because her children are foreign nationals.
Suu Kyi, who spent a total of 15 years under house arrest in Yangon under military rule, entered parliament through a 2012 by-election in Kawhmu, a rural hamlet near Yangon, two years after her release.
Suu Kyi on Wednesday called for national reconciliation talks with the powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing and Thein Sein, stressing the need for a peaceful transition. Carter Center election monitors said the elections were competitive and meaningful in many areas.
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But she is barred from the presidency by an army-written constitution. She said she will be “above the president” for which her party has a candidate whose identity has not been revealed.
