World leaders laud Myanmar poll
YANGON ( Reuters) — The party of democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi has won a majority in Myanmar’s parliament, the election commission said yesterday, giving it enough seats to elect its chosen candidate to the presidency when the new legislature convenes next year.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) had been expected to take control of parliament since Sunday’s nationwide vote, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US President Barack Obama had already congratulated her on a landmark victory in the country’s first free election in 25 years.
Obama and Ban also praised Myanmar President Thein Sein for successfully staging the historic poll, with the UN chief acknowledging his “courage and vision” to organize an election in which the ruling camp was trounced.
Results have been trickling in since the weekend, and yesterday, the election commission announced the latest batch of seats that pushed the NLD over the threshold to secure an absolute majority in parliament.
The triumph of the charismatic Nobel peace prize laureate sweeps out an old guard of former generals that has run Myanmar, also known as Burma, since Thein Sein ushered in a raft of democratic and economic reforms four years ago.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes noted broad participation by Myanmar’s people and a commitment by its rulers to abide by the result.
” This is in many ways a momentous opportunity for the people of Burma,” Rhodes said. “We had been very focused on this election. It is a critical milestone in evaluating Burma’s democratic transition.
”Rhodes said Obama would meet with the Myanmar president, along with other regional leaders, during his Asia trip this month. Obama has visited Myanmar twice over the past three years, hoping to make its transition to democracy a foreign policy legacy of his presidency.
In a call with Suu Kyi, Obama “commended her for her tireless efforts and sacrifice over so many years to promote a more inclusive, peaceful and democratic Burma,” the White House said.
Thein Sein, whose semi-civilian government took power when the ruling junta stepped aside in 2011, and powerful army chief Min Aung Hlaing said they would respect the result and hold reconciliation talks with Suu Kyi soon.
Such unambiguous endorsements of Suu Kyi’s victory could smooth the lengthy post-election transition ahead of the last session of the old parliament, which reconvenes on Monday.
While the election and two months of campaigning in the run-up were largely peaceful, global leaders stressed that a large number of people — estimated by some rights activists at around four million — were unable to cast their ballots.
” He is regretfully aware that a large number of voters from minority communities, in particular the Rohingya, were denied the right to vote and some were disqualified as candidates,” Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.
”There is much hard work that remains ahead on Myanmar’s democratic journey and toward making future elections truly inclusive.”
Myanmar’s government has denied Rohingya Muslims citizenship, and hundreds died in clashes between Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012. Some 140,000 Rohingya live in squalid camps, while thousands more have fled by boat, leading to a regional migration crisis.