Myanmar junta to hand over its baton
Suu Kyi’s party sweeps the board
AUNG San Suu Kyi’s opposition yesterday secured a parliamentary majority from last weekend’s polls that will allow it to elect a president and form a government in a historic shift in power from the army.
Confirmation of the landslide win comes five years to the day since Suu Kyi, the magnetic force behind the country’s democracy movement, was released from house arrest by the military.
The election, the first Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party has contested since 1990, saw a huge turnout that yielded more than 80% of seats for the NLD.
After a drip-feed of results from the Union Election Commission, the NLD yesterday sailed through the two-thirds majority it needed to rule, claiming 348 parliamentary seats with a number of results yet to be declared.
Government now beckons for the NLD in a seismic change of the political landscape in a country controlled for five decades by the military.
Suu Kyi’s party now controls the lower and upper houses, allowing it to elect the president and form the government.
The big majority affords Suu Kyi, 70, leverage in the political wrangling ahead with a military establishment that has been chastened at the polls but retains sweeping powers.
Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by a junta-scripted constitution, which also guarantees the army a 25% bloc of seats.
Buoyed by her party’s sweep of the polls, Suu Kyi called for “national reconciliation talks” with President Thein Sein and army chief Min Aung Hlaing.
The international community has welcomed the election, with US President Barack Obama calling both Suu Kyi and the president to offer his congratulations.
Yet the country’s military is not about to disappear. It retains major influence with its parliamentary bloc which effectively assures a veto over constitutional change.
It also has key ministerial posts reserved under the charter.
Many NLD supporters remain deeply suspicious of the army and its political allies, who are notorious for dirty tricks and crackdowns that have left hundreds dead and thousands jailed. — AFP