Suu Kyi’s landslide poll win secured
Print Edition
AUNG San Suu Kyi’s party yesterday secured a landslide election victory in Myanmar, promising a new dawn for a country asphyxiated by 50 years of army rule.
In a reflection of rapid changes that have swept the country, confirmation of the win came five years to the day since Suu Kyi was released from house arrest by the military.
She has now led her National League for Democracy party to a massive popular mandate with more than 80 percent of seats going to the movement.
The NLD yesterday sailed through the two-thirds majority it needs to rule, claiming 364 parliamentary seats with a number of results yet to be declared.
The election has won praise from observers for its smooth, peaceful passing.
“We’ve been ready to form a new government for many years,” said party spokesman Nyan Win.
Suu Kyi, 70, has not spoken to the party faithful since Monday. In Yangon there were no immediate signs of celebration after the party figurehead urged restraint from supporters.
Under Myanmar’s complex political system, the NLD will also have to wait until next March for the transfer of power.
That gap has left some party loyalists nervous at the potential for political chicanery by an army establishment that wields substantial power.
However, the comfortable majority gives Suu Kyi’s party control of the lower and upper houses, allowing it to elect the president and form the government.
Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by a junta-scripted constitution, which also guarantees the army a 25 percent bloc of seats.
She has already vowed to govern from “above the president” saying she will circumnavigate the charter ban by backing a proxy to run for the top office.
The win represents a huge stride in Suu Kyi’s decades-long journey from political prisoner to the heart of power.
Many NLD supporters have waited 25 years for their vote to count.
“I’m so happy ... Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will do more for us than the current government,” said street vendor Moe Thu.
Buoyed by her party’s sweep of the polls, Suu Kyi has called for “national reconciliation talks” with President Thein Sein and army chief Min Aung Hlaing.
Both men have congratulated the NLD on its election performance and have vowed to abide by the result.
Lower house speaker Shwe Mann has also been invited to talks, but his political stock appears low after losing his seat and falling out with senior figures from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party.
The USDP, which is made up of former military cadres, has been mauled at the election.
Yet the president, a former general who has led the government since 2011, has won praise for steering the reforms that culminated in Sunday’s poll.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon congratulated Suu Kyi for her election win, but also hailed the “courage and vision” of Thein Sein for “leadership in the reform process.”
Those reforms have seen many political prisoners released, the restoration of basic freedoms and the economy resuscitated after years of madcap junta planning.
Yet the country’s military is not about to disappear. Its parliamentary bloc effectively assures it a veto over constitutional change.
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