Aung San Suu Kyi Wins Seat in Myanmar Election

YANGON, Myanmar Fresh from her party’s apparent landslide victory in nationwide elections, Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar’s democracy movement, has asked the commander of the country’s powerful military for a meeting on the basis of “national reconciliation”.

The commission announced 61 more results for Parliament’s lower house on Wednesday, which included Suu Kyi’s name as the winning representative from the Kawhmu constituency, which is part of Rangoon state.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy said it received a message from Information Minister Ye Htut on behalf of President Thein Sein congratulating it for leading the race for parliamentary seats in Sunday’s election.

A quarter of the 664 parliamentary seats are set aside for the army.

But Suu Kyi’s supporters remain anxious at how the army will respond to a mauling at the polls, with memories still keen of the 1990 election – won by the NLD but then swatted away by the army. Still, she needs to deal well with the military and its allies because – aside from those parliamentary seats – they will retain control of three key departments: Defense, Home and Border Security, according to the NY Times.

General Nerdah said it was too early to predict how the Burma Army would react to the election result, but warned that the General’s had previous.

The military refused to allow a transfer of power after Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy overwhelmingly won elections in 1990. The Union Solidarity Development Party or USDP, which enjoys the support of the military, has been in power in the country since 2001 when a transition from military rule to civilian rule started. That’s because Myanmar’s constitution – drafted by the military – doesn’t let anyone with foreign family members anywhere near the presidency.

It also means that Myanmar is likely to soon have its first government in decades that isn’t under the military’s sway. Voter turnout is estimated at about 80 percent, with no reported violence.

Ms Suu Kyi, whose party like many others did not field a Muslim candidate, has been criticised by a few for failing to speak up more for Muslims, who have been targeted by ultra-nationalist Buddhist groups. The new MPs will choose the president in February, and the president will form a government to take office on March 30, 2016.

The successful holding of elections in Myanmar on Sunday marked a triumph not only for the nation of 55 million but also for the cause of democracy in the world.

The NLD previously announced it had won 44 of the 45 lower house seats and all 12 of the upper house seats in the capital Yangon.