Suu Kyi’s NLD party wins historic majority in Myanmar polls

In a surprise move after mass protests in 1988 against their economically disastrous regime, the military called multi-party general elections. Suu Kyi was under house arrest at the time and had to accept the Nobel Peace Prize the following year in absentia.

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 military has veto power over changes to the Constitution. An interim tally by the country’s election commission released Friday showed that the NLD has captured a single majority of the 664 seats in Parliament, which includes uncontested seats reserved for members of the military.

By Thursday evening, the latest constituencies announced their results that pushed Suu Kyi’s party to the brink of the crucial “super-majority” number in the country.

China has for decades been close to neighbouring Myanmar’s authoritarian military leaders, whom voters overwhelmingly rejected in historic polls on Sunday.

“We will respect and obey the decision of the electorate”, Ye Htut, also the minister of information, said on his Facebook page.

Many in the country of 51 million hope the NLD will push through political reforms but also develop the country’s struggling education and health systems, and create jobs in south-east Asia’s poorest nation.

In a phone call, Obama commended Suu Kyi for “her tireless efforts and sacrifice over so many years” to promote a peaceful, democratic Burma, the White House said.

But human rights groups have warned of a rise in politically motivated arrests as well as discrimination directed against the Muslim minority, notably the stateless Rohingya population.

It installed retired senior officers in the ruling party to fill Cabinet posts and gave itself key powers in the constitution, including control of several powerful ministries and a quarter of the seats in both houses of Parliament.

It signifies that the NLD can lead not only in the Central Union Parliament and Central Union Government, but also in the Region or State Parliament and the Region or State Government.

Suu Kyi’s trip to the top, or near-top, of her country’s government, has brought her to the point where she and her party must now deliver on promises made.

She has become increasingly defiant on the presidential clause as the scale of her victory has become apparent, making it clear she will run the country regardless of who the NLD elects as president.

The NLD will now be able to elect both the president and one of two vice presidents in an electoral college formed of new MPs early next year.