The party of democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi has won a majority in Myanmar’s Parliament, the election commission said on Friday, giving it enough seats to elect its chosen candidate to the presidency when the new legislature convenes next year.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy had been expected to take control of parliament since Sunday’s nationwide vote, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US President Barack Obama had already congratulated her on a landmark victory in the country’s first free election in 25 years, Reuters reported.
Obama and Ban also praised Myanmar President Thein Sein for successfully staging the historic poll, with the UN chief acknowledging his “courage and vision” to organize an election in which the ruling camp was trounced.
Results have been trickling in since the weekend, and on Friday the election commission announced the latest batch of seats that pushed the NLD over the threshold to secure an absolute majority in parliament.
The triumph of the charismatic Nobel peace prize laureate sweeps out an old guard of former generals that has run Myanmar, also known as Burma, since Thein Sein ushered in a raft of democratic and economic reforms four years ago.
