Myanmar's Suu Kyi heads for landslide polls win
Myanmar's ruling party conceded defeat in the country's general election today as the opposition led by democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on course for a landslide victory.
"We lost," Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) acting chairperson Htay Oo told Reuters in an interview a day after the South-East Asian country's first free nationwide election in quarter of a century.
The election commission later began announcing constituency-by-constituency results from yesterday's poll. All of the first 12 announced were won by Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy (NLD).
The NLD said its own tally of results from polling stations around the country showed it on track to win more than 70 percent of the seats being contested in parliament, more than the two-thirds it needs to form Myanmar's first democratically elected government since the early 1960s.
"They must accept the results, even though they don't want to," NLD spokesman Win Htein told Reuters , adding that in the highly populated central region the Nobel peace laureate's party looked set to win more than 90 percent of seats.
Earlier a smiling Suu Kyi appeared on the balcony of the NLD's headquarters in Yangon and in a brief address urged supporters to be patient and wait for the official results.
Democratic journey
The election was a landmark in the country's unsteady journey to democracy from the military dictatorship that made it a pariah state for so long. It is also a moment that Suu Kyi will relish after spending years under house arrest.
Whatever the result, Myanmar is heading into a period of uncertainty over how Suu Kyi and other ascendant parties negotiate sharing power with the still-dominant military.
Suu Kyi started the contest with a sizeable handicap. The military-drafted constitution guarantees one-quarter of parliament's seats to unelected members of the armed forces.
Even if she gets the majority she needs, Suu Kyi is barred from taking the presidency herself under the constitution written by the junta to preserve its power.
Suu Kyi has said she would be the power behind the new president regardless of a constitution she has derided as 'very silly'.
The military will, however, retain significant power. It is guaranteed key ministerial positions, the constitution gives it the right to take over the government under certain circumstances, and it also has a grip on the economy through holding companies.
Incomplete vote counts showed some of the most powerful politicians of the USDP trailing in their bids for parliamentary seats, indicating a heavy loss for the party created by the former junta and led by retired military officers.
Among the losers was USDP chief Htay Oo, who told Reuters from the rural delta heartlands that are a bastion of support for his party he was "surprised" by his own defeat.
- Reuters
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