A street vender holds a calendar featuring Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a Yangon street
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party was on the verge of a formal victory yesterday, as continuing results from Myanmar’s historic polls pointed to a landslide win for the pro-democracy crusader and a resounding rejection of military rule.
Attention was riveted on what has been called the “magic number” for Suu Kyi’s party. The election commission announced more results showing the National League for Democracy party needs just 38 more seats to achieve the 329 seats it needs for a majority in the 664-member, two-house Parliament.
Elections were not held in seven constituencies, meaning a simple majority can be reached at 329. The NLD has won 196 seats in the lower house and 95 in the upper house for a total of 291. More results from Sunday’s voting were to be announced later yesterday.
A party with a combined parliamentary majority is able to select the next president, who can then name a Cabinet and form a new government.
The military establishment has not formally conceded defeat but has acknowledged the massive success of Suu Kyi’s party, and has pledged it will respect the final election results.
Suu Kyi’s party said Wednesday it received a message from Information Minister Ye Htut on behalf of President Thein Sein congratulating it for leading the race for parliamentary seats.
Ye Htut said the government will pursue a peaceful transfer of power “in accordance with the legislated timeline.” He was not immediately available for comment.
Thein Sein is a former general who has led the military-backed government for the past five years.
The message helps ease lingering concerns that the military, which has a large influence over the ruling party, might deny the NLD power, as it did after elections in 1990.
It also means that Myanmar is likely to soon have its first government in decades that isn’t under the military’s sway. But while an NLD victory virtually assures it of being able to elect the president as well, Suu Kyi remains barred from becoming president by a constitutional provision inserted by the military before it transferred power to a quasi-civilian government in 2011.
Suu Kyi has declared, however, that she will become the country’s de facto leader, acting “above the president” if her party forms the next government. Vijay Joshi and
Esther Htusan, Yangon, AP
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