YANGON: Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi claimed on Monday a by-election landslide for her party, which she hoped would mark the beginning of a new era for Myanmar after a historic vote that could prompt the West to end sanctions.
The charismatic Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who led the struggle against military rule in the former Burma for two decades, was one of 44 candidates her National League for Democracy Party (NLD) said won all but one of the legislative seats being contested.
The by-elections followed a year of astonishing change for a country that was in the grip of military rule for decades: the government has freed hundreds of political prisoners, held talks with ethnic minority rebels, relaxed censorship, allowed trade unions and showed signs of pulling back from the economic and political orbit of giant neighbour China.
‘It is not so much our triumph as a triumph of the people, who have decided that they must be involved in the political process of this country,’ Suu Kyi told a crowd of cheering supporters at the NLD’s headquarters in Yangon.
‘We hope that this will be the beginning of a new era, when there will be more emphasis on the role of the people in the everyday politics of our country.
‘We hope that all other parties that took part in the elections will be in a position to cooperate with us to create a genuinely democratic atmosphere in our nation.’
The NLD, taking part in elections for the first time since it won 1990 polls which the military ignored, contested all but one of the 45 vacant seats in the legislature.
Business executives, mostly from Asia but also from Europe and the United States, have swarmed into Yangon in recent months to hunt for investment opportunities in the country of 60 million people, one of the last frontier markets in Asia.
A small number of officials from Western countries and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) were invited to attend the polls but were given only a few days to prepare. They privately called themselves ‘visitors’ rather than observers.
ASEAN issued a statement on Monday saying it believed the election ‘was conducted in a free and fair and transparent manner’ and urged the West to consider lifting sanctions.
Observers who spoke to Reuters said they saw no mass fraud. The 2010 election was condemned as rigged to favour the USDP.
The NLD boycotted that vote. But just as Myanmar is changing, so too is Suu Kyi. Many see her now, at 66, as more politically astute, more realistic and ready to compromise. She has described Thein Sein as honest and sincere and accepted his appeal for the NLD to take part.
Her priorities, she says, are introducing the rule of law, ending long-simmering insurgencies and amending the 2008 constitution that ensures the military retains a big political stake.
Many expect Suu Kyi to exert considerable influence and some wonder if conservative members of parliament would dare oppose her, given her popularity, especially ahead of a general election in 2015.
Some critics say Suu Kyi has got too close to the ex-generals and fear she is being exploited to persuade the West to end sanctions and make parliament appear effective.
Some have almost impossibly high hopes of what she can achieve. ‘Too many expectations are dangerous,’ said Ko Ko Gyi, a former political prisoner. ‘She is not a magician.’
Win Min, a political scientist at Harvard University, said it was likely Suu Kyi would push for changes that raised living standards before tackling the contentious issue of the military’s political power.
‘She can be effective in galvanising the parliamentarians. She is likely to be more realistic in focusing more on making easier constitutional amendments that won’t reduce so much of the military power,’ he said.
Some U.S. restrictions such as visa bans and asset freezes could be lifted quickly if the election goes smoothly, diplomats say, while the European Union may end its ban on investment in timber and the mining of gemstones and metals. But some critics say the restrictions should remain in place to encourage more reforms. (UNI)