Yangon: Myanmar’s ruling National League for Democracy claimed Monday it had won a clear parliamentary majority and would retain power, even though the state election body has named just a few of the winners in Sunday’s elections.
The Union Election Commission earlier said full results may take a week. By 8 pm, it had announced the winners of just nine of Parliament’s 642 seats, all nine NLD candidates.
An NLD spokesperson, Monywa Aung Shin, said the party had confirmed it won more than 322 seats — a majority — but the final outcome “would be likely more than” the party’s goal of 377 seats.
An NLD victory was widely expected since its leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is immensely popular. Some had speculated its totals might be cut because of deteriorating relations with ethnic minority-based parties, with whom her party had cooperated in 2015 elections.
The United States and other observers have expressed concern about how the election was conducted, especially the disenfranchisement of the Rohingya minority.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Myanmar’s second competitive national election since military rule ended was an important step.
Nevertheless, we are concerned by the large number of unelected seats constitutionally reserved for the military; the disfranchisement of groups including Rohingya; cancellation of voting in parts of several states and regions; and the disqualification of candidates based on arbitrary application of citizenship and residency requirements, which prevent the realization of a more democratic and civilian government, Pompeo said in a statement released by the State Department.
The Fortify Rights group said it was concerned about the election’s conduct as well as arrests of activists and a crackdown on free expression and assembly.
A core principle of elections under international law is universal and equal suffrage and that is not what took place yesterday, Ismail Wolff, regional director of Fortify Rights, said in a statement released Monday.