Myanmar president ‘will hand power’ to Suu Kyi after poll win

On the fifth anniversary of her release from house arrest, election results Friday showed that Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party had won enough seats in Parliament to allow it to form Myanmar’s first truly civilian government in more than half a century.

The former general, who took off his uniform to become president in 2011, told more than 90 political parties not to worry about the next transition to Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

He called for convening the second term of the parliament in order to carry out the peaceful transfer systematically to the emerging new government.

Suu Kyi, 70, has said her party supports a federal future and has made ethnic affairs and peace a central pillar of her party manifesto for Myanmar, where ethnic minority groups have fought decades-long wars for greater autonomy.

NLD spokesman Win Htein told AFP that the party was acutely conscious that the size of its victory mirrors its success in 1990 elections, which were ignored by the then ruling generals who clung to power for another two decades.

“Our party policy which we have been holding till today is national reconciliation”.

President Thein Sein assures leaders of political parties in Yangon a week after election.

“The drama will not be over soon”, said Renaud Egreteau, a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington who is researching a book on the parliament of Myanmar, also known as Burma.

He appeared sanguine about the resounding defeat of his army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which will slip into opposition in the next parliament – due to sit from February.

In Seattle, Suu Kyi’s win is a source of mixed feelings. Learning from the military’s assault on democracy and brazen decision to reject the internationally recognised general elections in Myanmar 25 years ago, Indonesia should be more proactive than it has been in the past as a friend of Myanmar. On October 15 only eight ethnic armed groups out of a negotiating group of 15 signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government after almost two years of talks. These included three groups fighting in northern Shan State – the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army – and three groups the government said did not have military forces – the Wa National Organisation, the Lahu Democratic Union and the Arakan National Council.

Officially making up 4% of the country’s 51 million people – although others say the figure is much higher – Muslims found themselves a target of hatred in the lead up to the polls. For its part, the NLD did little to stand up for the rights of Myanmar’s Muslims, and the issue remains a flash point domestically and a sore point with foreign friends such as the United States. “We will hand this process (of reform) on to a new government”. “Can she remain the country’s moral authority now that she has to make politics?” I believe that the people have the ability to do that.