Oppositionslederen, Aung San Suu Kyis parti siger, det har vundet 40 ud af 45 pladser, som var i spil ved søndagens suppleringsvalg i Burma. Det forrykker dog ikke magtbalancen i parlamentet, hvor hæren og dens støtter stadig sidder solidt med overvældende 4/5 af pladserne.
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she hopes Sunday’s by-elections marked the start of a new era. Calling the polls a “triumph of the people”, she said the goal now was reconciliation with other parties, reports BBC online Monday.
Official results for the polls that saw 45 seats contested are expected later this week. But Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) said she easily won in her Kawhmu constituency, and that the party expects to win multiple seats.
Sunday’s vote was seen as a key test of political reforms, though the army and its allies dominate the 664-seat parliament.
The by-elections were being held to fill parliamentary seats left vacant by the appointment of ministers after the polls that formally ended military rule in November 2010.
The NLD was competing in its first elections since 1990, after boycotting the 2010 polls. It was one of 17 opposition parties that took part.
NLD officials say they believe the party has won almost all of the 45 seats it contested, including some in the remote capital, Nay Pyi Taw. There has been no formal word yet from the Election Commission.
But even if the NLD wins most of the seats, the army and its proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) will still hold about 80 per cent of seats in parliament, BBC notes.
