Myanmar Says Obama Congratulates President on ‘Free and Fair’ Vote

Nov 11, 2015- Aung San Suu Kyi has won her seat after Myanmar’s historic election, say officials, with her National League for Democracy (NLD) party on course for a landslide victory.

The Union Election Commission announced 63 more results for Parliament’s lower house on Wednesday, which included Suu Kyi’s name as the victor from Kawhmu, which is part of Yangon state.

By Wednesday evening, the commission had announced official results for 298 of the 491 seats contested in Sunday’s election.

Myanmar’s president has joined the army chief in congratulating Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition after it swept national elections, and promised a smooth transition of power.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party is expected to win a massive victory in the parliamentary elections that will for the first time in more than a half century give the country a government not controlled or influenced by the military.

“It is important to implement the people’s will in a peaceful manner for the sake of the country”, she wrote in letters addressed to the three men.

Already, the military-aligned ruling party has admitted it has lost more seats than it has won.

The Nobel Laureate’s supporters credit her with bringing new concrete roads, schools and clinics to the rural area where most people make their living from farming. “He will act in accordance with the decisions of the party”, said Suu Kyi, adding that the president will be “told exactly what he can do”.

President Thein Sein, the leader of the present military rule in the country, has said he will respect the election results.

Thailand’s Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was ousted by a military coup past year, was widely seen as fronting for her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was forced from power in 2006 and lives in exile to avoid a prison term on a corruption conviction. The ruling Communist Party hosted Aung San Suu Kyi in June, during which she met with China’s president and party leader, Xi Jinping, in a sign of Beijing’s willingness to adapt to the changing political landscape.

Myanmar, which was long ruled by a military regime, will move toward a new government in the coming weeks after millions voted Sunday in what observers said was a reasonably fair election. Suu Kyi was married to a foreigner and has two children who are British citizens. The constitution that blocks Suu Kyi from the presidency also enshrines much of the military’s authority.

Myanmar’s election matters to Bangladesh, as it is the country’s gateway to the South East Asian region.

The military and the largest parties in the upper house and the lower house will each nominate a candidate for president.