Tuesday, 10 November 2015

Myanmar's opposition moves towards big election victory

Vote counting continued on Tuesday with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party predicting a landslide victory after decades of often brutal military rule.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Suu Kyi, has won 53 lower house seats in the national parliament out of 62 announced so far.

With predictions of a resounding NLD win, questions are being raised over how Myanmar's long-ruling generals would handle a possible election defeat.

The military government handed power to a semi-civilian government in 2011, but the army still dominates politics after decades in power. Twenty-five percent of seats in parliament are reserved for the army.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Alexander Lambsdorff, the chief EU election observer, said "95 percent of the ratings" the European delegation received about the voting process were "very good".

Still, he said, the election cannot be fully called "genuine" when 25 percent of parliament is not contested and automatically reserved for the military.

Election observer Ana Gomes, an EU parliament member from Portugal, said she was "impressed by the calm and peaceful atmosphere" during voting. But she called on Myanmar to amend its constitution to allow the election of all members of parliament.

Even with a win for her party, Suu Kyi cannot become president, according to the country's constitution as she is married to a UK citizen and her children have UK passports.

Source: ALJAZEERA News

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