INP
\nNAYPYITAW
\nAung San Suu Kyi\u2019s ruling party secured an absolute majority in Myanmar\u2019s election, official results showed Friday, in a poll disputed by the military-aligned opposition and criticised by rights groups.
\nHer National League for Democracy (NLD) had already declared a landslide victory based on its own tallies, prompting street celebrations by supporters. But official figures were still being returned five days after the ballot, only the second such polls since the nation emerged from outright military rule in 2011.
\nResults announced by the election commission Friday showed the NLD had won 346 seats \u2014- more than 50 percent of parliament, even taking into account the quarter of seats reserved for the military under the constitution. The party is on track to improve on its landslide win in 2015, despite widespread disillusion in many ethnic-minority areas. \u201cPeople clearly realised the need for the NLD to get enough votes to form a government on their own,\u201d NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt told reporters, adding this would help \u201cminimise political conflict\u201d.
\nThe military-aligned opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has been trounced across the country, winning just 25 seats by Friday.
\nThe party alleges the vote was neither free nor fair and is demanding that the Union Election Commission (UEC) step down and polls be re-run. Yangon-based analyst Khin Zaw Win warned the coming months will be messy, adding the situation was a consequence of the UEC being filled with \u201cyes-men and incompetents\u201d. Under the constitution, the government appoints all commission members. But even if some results were overturned, \u201cthe NLD landslide is so large that they wouldn\u2019t alter the overall outcome\u201d, said Richard Horsey from the International Crisis Group.
\nIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already tweeted his congratulations to Suu Kyi, writing he looked forward to strengthening the neighbours\u2019 \u201ctraditional bonds of friendship\u201d.
\nObservers have widely concluded that voting took place smoothly on the day, despite forecasts of a low turnout due to a recent surge of coronavirus cases. But they condemned what they described as the election commission\u2019s lack of transparency and its cancellation of the polls across many ethnic minority areas — ostensibly for security reasons.
\nThe move left 1.5 million voters disenfranchised and sparked grievances in already restive areas that the playing field had been tilted in favour of the NLD. Some will conclude the electoral process does not work for them and choose \u201cpolitical insurrection or insurgency instead\u201d, warned Horsey.
\nRights groups have also condemned the vote, which left virtually all Rohingya Muslims disenfranchised, either languishing in Bangladeshi refugee camps or stripped of citizenship in Myanmar. Even though Suu Kyi\u2019s international reputation was badly hurt over the Rohingya crisis — for which the country now faces charges of genocide — she remains widely revered within Myanmar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INP NAYPYITAW Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s ruling party secured an absolute majority in Myanmar\u2019s election, official results showed Friday, in a poll disputed by the military-aligned opposition and criticised by rights groups. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) had already declared a landslide victory based on its own tallies, prompting street celebrations by supporters. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n