November 13, 2015

Although final results are not yet available, election officials in the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar (also called Burma) announced today that the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won an absolute majority of seats in both houses of the country’s parliament. After the new members of parliament are sworn in early next year, they will elect a president. International observers praised the November 8 elections as the most democratic to be held in Myanmar in 25 years.

On Nov. 8, 2015, Myanmar held elections for both houses of its parliament. The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi (shown), has won a vast majority of the seats that have so far been declared. © Candace Scharsu, Archive Photos

The NLD has been Myanmar’s main political opposition for decades. In elections held in 1990, the NLD won 60 percent of the vote and 80 percent of the seats in parliament. However, the junta (military government) that ruled the country at the time annulled the results. Prior to the election, the junta placed NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, where she spent much of the following 20 years. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent efforts to bring democracy to Myanmar. (She collected her prize in 2012, after being released from house arrest.)

Myanmar’s constitution, which was adopted in 2008 under the direction of the army, contains two clauses that will limit the NLD’s mandate. First, in a clause seemingly included specifically to keep Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency, the constitution bars anyone from serving as president who has family members who are citizens of another country. Aung San Suu Kyi’s two sons are British, as was her late husband. Second, the constitution reserves 25 percent of the seats in each of the two parliamentary houses for members of the country’s army, which also retains control of key security and defense offices. The NLD will need to work together with the military to enact political change.

In light of the events of 1990, some NLD supporters are concerned about the government’s seeming willingness to accept this year’s election results. However, several signs in the past few days have pointed toward a peaceful transition of power. A number of government officials have made statements offering congratulations to Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD on their performance in the election. In addition, the main headline for the Nov. 12, 2015, issue of the government-owned newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar read “Welcoming the New Guard.” United States President Barack Obama congratulated Myanmar President Thein Sein for holding “a historic free and fair general election.”

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