Myanmar Elections: Suu Kyi Gets Majority In Lower House, Paving Way For

Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party on Friday clinched enough seats in parliament to elect a president and form a government when incoming lawmakers convene next year.

With votes still being counted, the Union Election Commission said the National League for Democracy (NLD) party had crossed the 329 threshold of seats needed for an outright majority in both houses of the 664-member parliament.

Suu Kyi’s party won a 1990 election by a landslide, only for the army to ignore the result and tighten its grip on power.

But the incoming results confirmed a landslide win for the opposition and a resounding rejection of military rule in Burma.

On Tuesday morning, following enormous rallies on the two preceding days, she told a crowd of supporters not to provoke the losers: “I want to remind you all that even candidates who didn’t win have to accept the winners but it is important not to provoke the candidates who didn’t win to make them feel bad”.

The constitution also prevents NLD Chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming the country’s president due to her family status which involves foreign citizenship. This week, she elaborated in an interview that the NLD would pick a president with “no authority” who would “act in accordance with the positions of the party”.

Reports emerged Thursday that the NLD received an overwhelming electoral majority, taking 90 percent of parliamentary seats with 47 percent declared. Aung San Suu Kyi won that poll but the results were promptly annulled and her colleagues imprisoned.

Myanmar has been praised internationally for its transition towards democracy.

Suu Kyi’s father, Gen. Aung San, is viewed as founding father of Myanmar.

Obama has spent great efforts on helping Myanmar’s transition from authoritarian rule to an emergent democracy, visiting the country twice in the last four years.

While the election and two months of campaigning in the run-up were largely peaceful, global leaders stressed that a large number of people, estimated by a few rights activists at around 4 million, were unable to cast their ballots.

Rohingya Muslim minority children in a refugee camp outside Sitttwe, in Rakhine state. There is speculation Tin Oo, 89, a former army general and NLD veteran, will be appointed president, but the politically autocratic Suu Kyi has kept her silence on the matter.

The military will retain significant power, including direct control over the police and large parts of the bureaucracy.

NLD is also well ahead in the upper house and regional assemblies.

Suu Kyi has tried to woo the military contingent, saying she bears no ill will toward the military her father founded and pointing out that just one courageous military officer would need to break ranks to permit changes to the constitution. The president will assume power by the end of March.