President congratulates Aung San Suu Kyi

Political commentator U Yan Myo Thein said this could be the most problematic issue for the NLD.

Mr Thein Sein won praise from a few of the leaders for his government’s holding of a transparent, free and fair election, and accepting the results with grace.

When they meet, the leaders will focus on national reconciliation.

Among those soldiers were reformers like President Thein Sein and his team of “super ministers”, who sought worldwide help to overhaul of an economy shackled by sanctions and decades of corruption and inept military rule.

According to Reuters, Shwe Mann said Suu Kyi asked him for assistance during the transition period-the NLD is unlikely to take office until next March. The military has indicated it will abide by the election results. Burned into public memory is the bitter disappointment of the 1990 elections, which were won overwhelmingly by the NLD only to be ignored by the military, who clung to power for another two decades.

The concern of the generals is not Suu Kyi and the NLD leadership, but working people and their raised expectations of greater democratic rights and improved living standards following the election.

But the Nobel laureate has taken a conciliatory approach since the scale of the NLD’s election success became clear, declining to make a victory speech and urging supporters to avoid triumphalism.

About 30 million people were eligible to vote in the election – turnout was estimated at about 80%.

Suu Kyi has the power to select a president because of her party’s parliamentary majority, with the candidate chosen in a vote of the new NLD-dominated legislature in February.

The former junta general, who shed his uniform to lead the country’s quasi-civilian regime five years ago, said the 8 November polls were testament to the political and economic changes that have swept the former pariah state since the end of junta rule.

Moreover, for the military, any talk of national reconciliation would have to adhere to three principles: Non-disintegration of their union, non-disintegration of national solidarity, and perpetuation of national sovereignty.

As long as the ethnic minorities’ demand for federalism is not addressed, the military, as an institution, will continue to have concerns about the possible disintegration of the union. The military, which has enjoyed lavish funding in the past, is unlikely to adopt a policy of austerity-for itself at least-in the upcoming budget.

As the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, and on behalf of my Government and the people I congratulate you following your historic landslide victory in the elections.

The NLD leader snubbed an invitation to attend the October 15 ceremony and the party turned down the possibility of being a domestic “witness” to the NCA signing. Aware of the role these states can play in her electoral victory, in the past one year Suu Kyi had travelled frequently to such areas.

The constitution also prevents Suu Kyi from becoming the country’s president due to her family status which involves the foreign citizenship of her children.

The NLD also faces a powerful local rival – the Arakan National Party (ANP) – that has been accused of stoking anti-Muslim sentiment and has called for the deportation of Rohingya.