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Aung San Suu Kyi supporters celebrate as they wait for Burma election results

Sunday's free nationwide elections are the country's first in 25 years

 

By Hnin Yadana Zaw, Antoni Slodkowski, Thomson Reuters Posted: Nov 08, 2015 8:00 AM ET, Last Updated: Nov 08, 2015 1:21 PM ET, Source

 

Supporters of Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi burst into boisterous celebration on Sunday after the country held its first free nationwide election in 25 years, the biggest step yet in a journey to democracy from dictatorship.

 

Although the outcome of the poll will not be clear for at least 36 hours, a densely packed crowd blocked a busy road beside the headquarters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in Rangoon as they cheered and waved red flags.

 

The NLD is expected to win the largest share of votes cast by an electorate of about 30 million, who chose from thousands of candidates standing for parliament and regional assemblies.

 

But a legacy of rule by military junta means Suu Kyi, who led the campaign for democracy, cannot become president herself. And whatever the result, Burma, also known as Myanmar, is heading into a period of uncertainty over how she and other ascendant parties negotiate sharing power with the still-dominant military.

 

A pariah state until a few years ago, Burma has had little experience organizing elections. Some 10,000 observers were enlisted to scrutinize the process. Early indications from the monitors were that voting was mostly trouble-free, with only isolated irregularities.

 

"From the dozens of people we have spoken to since 6 a.m. today, everybody feels they have been able to vote for whoever they wanted to in security and safety," said Durudee Sirichanya, one of the international observers. In the city of Mandalay, about 100 people were stopped from voting after officials discovered they were outsiders who had been mysteriously added to the register and then bussed to the polling station.

Rohingya Muslims not allowed to vote

The main concern about fairness arose before the election. Activists estimated that up to four million people, mostly citizens working abroad, would not be able to vote.

 

Religious tension, fanned by Buddhist nationalists whose actions have intimidated Burma's Muslim minority, also marred the election campaign. Among those excluded from voting were around a million Rohingya Muslims who are effectively stateless in their own land.

 

Still, there was excitement among voters about the first general election since a quasi-civilian government replaced military rule in 2011, which was widely seen as a referendum on the country's unsteady reform process.

 

"I've done my bit for change, for the emergence of democracy," said Daw Myint, a 55-year-old former teacher, after she cast her vote for the NLD in Rangoon.

 

Suu Kyi's car inched through a scrum of news photographers outside the polling station where the 70-year-old Nobel peace laureate came to vote. She was stony-faced as bodyguards shouted at people to move aside, but a jubilant cry of "Victory! Victory!" went up from the crowd of well-wishers as she went inside.

 

Many voters doubted the military would accept the outcome of the vote if the NLD wins. But in the country's administrative capital, Naypyitaw, military Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing said there would be no repeat of the last free vote in 1990, when Suu Kyi won but the army ignored the result. She spent most of the next 20 years under house arrest before her release in 2010.

 

"If the people choose them [the NLD], there is no reason we would not accept it," the senior general told reporters.

'Very silly' constitution

Results from the election are expected to come in slowly, with a clear overall picture not likely to emerge until Tuesday morning.

 

Suu Kyi is barred from taking the presidency herself by provisions of a constitution written by the junta to preserve its power.

 

But if she wins a majority and is able to form Burma's first democratically elected government since the early 1960s, Suu Kyi says she will be the power behind the new president regardless of a constitution she has derided as "very silly".

 

Suu Kyi started the contest with a sizeable handicap: even if the vote is deemed free and fair, one-quarter of parliament's seats will still be held by unelected military officers.

 

To form a government and choose its own president, the NLD on its own or with allies must win more than two-thirds of all seats up for grabs. The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party would need far fewer seats if it secured the backing of the military bloc in parliament.

 

However, many voters were expected to spurn the USDP, created by the former junta and led by former military officers, because it is linked with the brutal dictatorship that installed President Thein Sein's nominally civilian government in 2011.

 

An inconclusive result could thrust some of the 91 parties contesting the election, including many representing Burma's myriad ethnic minorities, into a king-maker role. Even if the NLD is victorious, the military will 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.

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Myanmar Elections

 

Officials of the Union Election Commission sort out and count ballots at a polling station in Mandalay, Burma on Sunday. The elections will test whether popular mandate will help loosen the military's longstanding hold on power even if opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party secures a widely-expected victory. (Hkun Lat/The Associated Press)

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Suu Kyi

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi voted in an election for the first time on Sunday. During previous elections in Burma, she was under house arrest or there was no election in her residential area. (Mark Baker/The Associated Press)

Hopefully the elections will result in an accurate count of the votes, and where needed, all representatives will be present to witness the recount(s).

 

From indications a very long time ago, Aung San Suu Kyi would have hon past elections.

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Myanmar officials count votes after historic polls

 

Vijay Joshi and Jerry Harmer, The Associated Press, Published Sunday, November 8, 2015 7:31AM EST, Last Updated Sunday, November 8, 2015 10:56PM EST, Source

 

Will vote result be respected?

 

YANGON, Myanmar -- Officials across Myanmar counted votes Monday after a historic election that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party is expected to win easily, but its road to forming a government remains filled with hurdles even though the country will move a step closer to greater democracy.

 

Sunday's vote was billed as the freest ever in this Southeast Asian nation, which was under military rule for almost a half-century and a quasi-civilian government for the last five. Many of the eligible 30 million voters cast ballots for the first time, including Suu Kyi, the epitome of the democracy movement.

 

Although more than 90 parties contested, the main fight was between Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and the ruling Union Solidarity Development Party, made up largely of former junta members. A host of other parties from ethnic minorities, who form 40 per cent of Myanmar's 52 million people, are also running.

 

"I'm really happy because from what I heard the NLD is winning. I couldn't sleep until 11 or 12 because I was looking everywhere for results," said San Win, a 40-year-old newspaper vendor.

 

Ballots are being counted at the tens of thousands of polling stations across the country, and results will be relayed by party representatives to their headquarters where a master tally will be kept. The results will also be sent to the central election commission, which will announce them, as they arrive, on Monday.

 

While Suu Kyi's party is expected to win the highest number of seats, the election will not bring full democracy to this nation. Myanmar's constitution guarantees 25 per cent of seats in parliament to the military, and was rewritten to keep Suu Kyi, the country's most popular politician, from the presidency. Suu Kyi, 70, has, however, said she will be the real power behind the president and govern from behind the scenes.

 

"I think the country will be better if the party we chose or the leader we chose actually becomes the leader," said first-time voter Myo Su Wai on Sunday. "I'm voting for NLD. That's my choice."

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in a statement Sunday, congratulated the people of Myanmar for working together "to hold a peaceful and historic poll," although he recognized that the elections "were far from perfect."

 

He expressed hope that the election will move Myanmar a step closer to democracy.

 

After taking power in 1962, the junta first allowed elections in 1990, which Suu Kyi's party won overwhelmingly. A shocked army refused to seat the winning lawmakers, with the excuse that a new constitution first had to be implemented -- a task that ended up taking 18 years amid intense international pressure. New elections were finally held in 2010, but they were boycotted by the opposition, which cited unfair election laws.

 

The USDP won by default and took office in 2011 under President Thein Sein, a former general who began political and economic reforms to end Myanmar's isolation and jump-start its moribund economy. But the USDP's popularity, or lack of it, was really tested in a 2012 byelection in which the National League for Democracy won 43 of the 44 parliamentary seats it contested.

 

Suu Kyi couldn't vote in any of those elections because she was under house arrest or there was no election in her residential area. But she did win a seat in parliament in the byelection.

 

Thein Sein voted Sunday in the capital, Naypyitaw, and reiterated that the ruling party would respect the results.

 

Asked by the Irrawaddy online magazine what he would do if his party loses, Thein Sein said: "I have to accept it as it is. ... Whatever it is, we have to accept our voters' desire. Whoever leads the country, the most important thing is to have stability and development in the country."

 

Even if Suu Kyi's party secures the highest number of seats in the bicameral legislature, it will start with a disadvantage because of the reserved places for the military in the 664-seat parliament.

 

This means in theory that the USDP, with the military's support, need not win an outright majority to control the legislature. To counter that scenario, the NLD would require a huge win.

 

After the polls, the newly elected members and the military appointees will propose three candidates, and elect one as the president. The other two will become vice-presidents. That vote won't be held before February.

 

Suu Kyi cannot run for president or vice-president because of a constitutional amendment that bars anyone with a foreign spouse or child from holding the top jobs. Suu Kyi's two sons are British, as was her late husband.

 

The military is also guaranteed key ministerial posts -- defence, interior and border security. It is not under the government's control and could continue attacks against ethnic groups. But critics are most concerned about the military's constitutional right to retake direct control of government, as well as its direct and indirect control over the country's economy.

 

The election was also criticized by international observers because about 500,000 eligible voters from the country's 1.3 million-strong Rohingya Muslim minority were barred from casting ballots. The government considers them foreigners even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

 

Neither the NLD nor the USDP fielded a single Muslim candidate.

 

------

Associated Press journalists Robin McDowell, Grant Peck, Denis Gray and Jerry Harmer in Yangon and Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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Aung San Suu Kyi is set to oust Myanmar’s military regime that kept her under arrest for 15 years

 

The Associated Press and The Telegraph | November 9, 2015 8:59 AM ET, Source

 

Leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy party, Aung San Suu Kyi, smiles to her supporters after delivering a speech from a balcony of her party headquarters.

Leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy party, Aung San Suu Kyi, smiles to her supporters after delivering a speech from a balcony of her party headquarters.

 

Jubilant Burmese opposition supporters thronged streets in Rangoon Sunday as preliminary results pointed to sweeping election gains for the party of democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

The National League for Democracy seemed poised for power more than 50 years after the military took over the country in a coup and 25 years after the generals ignored its overwhelming victory in the last contested vote.

 

Voters began to line up well before dawn and waited for several hours in places to cast their ballots as about 80 per cent of the 30 million electorate joined the democratic experiment in the country also known as Myanmar.

 

The NLD had won about 70 per cent of the votes counted by midday Monday, party spokesman Win Htein said. The comments, if confirmed by official results from Sunday’s general election, indicate that Suu Kyi’s party would not only dominate Parliament, but could also secure the presidency despite handicaps built into the constitution.

 

“We will win a landslide,” Nyan Win, another party spokesman, told The Associated Press.

 

The watershed elections were conducted peacefully and largely without incident, bar the media scrum that engulfed Suu Kyi as she arrived at her polling station in Rangoon.

 

Once the world’s most famous political prisoner, the Nobel laureate addressed flag-waving crowds who gathered outside the NLD headquarters when polls closed.

 

“She’s the people’s leader who the whole world knows,” the crowds sang. “Write your own history in your hearts for our future so the dictatorship will end. Go, go, go away dictatorship.”

 

Suu Kyi urged supporters not to provoke losing rivals who mostly represent the former junta that ruled this Southeast Asian nation for a half-century.

“I think Mother Suu will win. She must win,” said Thet Paing Oo, a 24-year-old fruit seller, referring to the leader with an affectionate term that many people here use. “There will be more freedom in our country if the NLD wins. Our country will be better. Our lives will be better.”

 

From street vendors to intellectuals to former political prisoners who suffered torture and imprisonment, pro-democracy supporters were jubilant at the idea of a Suu Kyi victory, and the weakening of a military-backed regime in a country where iron-fisted generals have held sway for half a century.

 

Even some pro-government voters hailed Sunday’s general election, if only in hopes that a new government would bring improvement to their lives in one of the world’s most impoverished nation.

 

“All the indications are that it is looking like a landslide for the NLD,” said Larry Jagan, a prominent Rangoon-based commentator on Burmese politics.

 

Suu Kyi’s party needs that landslide to win two thirds of the contested seats to secure a majority in the new parliament because 25 per cent of the places are already allocated to military appointees under the army-drafted constitution.

There will be more freedom in our country if the NLD wins. Our country will be better. Our lives will be better.

Even before results were announced, there was a mood of excitement and enthusiasm as the elections unfolded in a country where, until recently, even voicing support for the NLD could result in a long prison term.

 

Ma Thida, a writer and former aide to Ms Suu Kyi, was among hundreds of former political prisoners who cast their votes yesterday.

 

The sky was still dark as she arrived with her elderly parents at their Rangoon polling station an hour before the gates would open.

 

“It gives me goose bumps to see the public involvement and engagement in this election. But we’re all aware that anything can happen today and in the days that follow.”

 

She was echoing widely-held concerns that the military-backed ruling party could cling to power via dirty tricks, electoral shenanigans or the post-vote negotiations and horse-trading that may be necessary to form a new government.

 

Those fears partially eased last night as opposition supporters hoped that a landslide win would force the powerful military to keep to its word to accept the election result. Even if the NLD wins the vote, Suu Kyi is prevented from being nominated for president by a clause barring anyone with close relations with foreign allegiances. Both of her sons are British, as was her late husband.

 

The NLD leader insisted last week that the clause would be no obstacle to her running the country with an unstated role “above the president”.

That comment infuriated the military’s political allies. “The president is head of the country – no one is above the president,” U Htay Oo, the head of the ruling party told the Nikkei Asian Review over the weekend.

 

“It would be violating the constitution to appoint and direct the president.”

 

The stand-off could still put the military on a collision course with the woman they held under house arrest for 15 years and who believes it is her destiny to lead her homeland – a role that was violently snatched from her father who was assassinated months before independence in 1948.

 

Esther Htusan And Shonal Ganguly contributed to the Associated Press with files from Vijay Joshi, Robin McDowell, Grant Peck, Denis Gray and Jerry Harmer in Yangon and Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok. Philip Sherwell contributed to the Daily Telegraph.

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