Mamata congratulates Suu Kyi on poll victory

The party itself said later Monday that they had won all but one of the 45 seats in Yangon’s lower house, and 70% of national seats, although this has not been confirmed officially, the BBC said. Final official results are not expected until Tuesday at the earliest.

Election authorities have so far announced only a small fraction of the results, but the National League for Democracy has scooped the lion’s share of those, boosting enthusiasm in the crowds in front of Suu Kyi’s party headquarters in Yangon Monday evening.

Sunday’s vote is a landmark moment in Myanmar’s history.

Myanmar President Thein Sein walks on the historic U Bein bridge while assessing environmental changes at Taungthaman lake in Amarapura, Mandalay, Myanmar on September 27, 2015.

The military government handed power to a semi-civilian government in 2011, but the army still dominates politics after decades in power.

He said: “We will win a landslide”. “She must win”, said Thet Paing Oo, a 24-year-old fruit seller, referring to the leader with an affectionate term that many people here use.

Several senior USDP leaders, including house speaker and presidential hopeful Shwe Mann, conceded defeat in initial hours of vote counting, according to Xinhua. When asked about the hurdle in her way, she went on to casually say, “Oh, I have already made plans”. “I love her. She will change our country in a very good way”.

Even if Suu Kyi’s party secures the highest number of seats in the bicameral legislature, it will start with a disadvantage because of the reserved places for the military in the 664-seat parliament.

Suu Kyi, victor of a Nobel Peace Prize, has been criticized for her relative silence concerning what human rights organizations call a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar’s Buddhist majority.

Opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) established an early lead as results of Sunday’s parliamentary poll in Myanmar began coming in on Monday, officials said.

The United States congratulated Myanmar on the election but noted that more work remains ahead on the country’s road to democracy.

“I think she is a ideal leader for our country and a woman of perfection”, he said.

Daniel Russel, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, added that after 50 years of military dictatorship, “this was a hell of a step forward for the democratic process in Burma”.

Initial results showed the NLD of pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi winning seats in its stronghold of Yangon, and even in the capital Naypyidaw, where the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) was expected to win. A massive majority in Parliament would allow the NLD to take the presidency and one vice presidency.

But Ms Suu Kyi can not become president because the constitution bars anyone with foreign children from holding the post. New elections were finally held in 2010, but they were boycotted by the opposition, which cited unfair election laws.

In other areas, powerful members of the ruling USDP, including Chairman Htay Oo, have lost out to NLD opponents.