Aung San Suu Kyi Holds Transition Talks With Myanmar President

Uncertainty surrounds the handover of power after Ms Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) swept almost 80 per cent of seats in the Nov 8 polls, the fairest elections in 25 years.

Myanmar’s top leaders will hold talks this week with opposition chief Aung San Suu Kyi, the first since her party’s landmark election success, officials said on Monday.

“Both sides talked about establishing a new tradition that has never existed before in Burma: how to transfer the duties of the head of state systematically”, Ye Htut said, while refusing to go into specifics on the content of the discussion.

The Southeast Asian nation started moving from a half-century of dictatorship toward democracy in 2011, when military rulers inexplicably agreed to hand over power to a nominally civilian government headed by President Thein Sein, a general turned reformist.

Suu Kyi asked Thein Sein to ensure a peaceful transition so as not to raise concerns among the public, presidential spokesman Ye Htut told reporters after the hour-long meeting in the presidential palace in Nay Pyi Taw.

Despite the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) landslide victory, most analysts agree, it would be nearly impossible to govern without the support of the military establishment. It also has a grip on all key security portfolios.

“The president will meet with Daw Suu on December 2nd”, presidential spokesperson Zaw Htay said without elaborating. It will also be able to choose the president from the trio of vice presidents, though Suu Kyi herself is barred from the country’s highest elected office due to a constitutional clause that prohibits the president from having a foreign spouse or children.

The present term of the parliament is to expire on January 31, 2016 and to be taken over by the newly-elected parliament and a new government is expected to be formed in February with presidential run taking place in accordance with the constitution.

Both Thein Sein and General Hlaing have congratulated Suu Kyi on her party’s poll victory and promised to respect the election result.

Ms Suu Kyi was put under house arrest prior to the 1990 election, and spent 15 of the next 22 years mostly confined to her lakeside villa in Yangon.