After 25 years of military rule, more than 30 million people were able to cast their vote in Myanmar’s nationwide election this past Sunday. The election would be the first step towards a long-awaited transition from a military regime, and the first time the country will be able to choose their leaders by free elections since 1960.
Although the votes are still being counted, the opposition party candidate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she was confident the party had won a large number of the parliament seats. A spokesman for the opposition party, National League for Democracy (N.L.D.), said the N.L.D. was “on track to win more than 70% of seats around the country”. As per the Myanmar Constitution, only 75% of the seats in Parliament can be disputed in the elections. The other 25% are reserved for the military.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi led the N.L.D. party to triumph in the last general election in 1990, in which the NLD won 81% of the seats. However, the military junta did not recognize the results. She had been taken under house arrest before the elections and remained under house arrest for a total of 15 years, until her release in 2010.
But even if Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi wins the election, she will not be able to become president. A new article was introduced in the Constitution by the military leaders in 2008, which states that anyone whose spouse or children are foreigners cannot become president or vice president. The political leader was married to British historian Michael Aris, and they had two children who are British citizens.
Regardless, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi said that she’d lead the country if her party wins the elections. “I’ve made it quite clear that if the N.L.D. wins the elections and we form a government, I’m going to be the leader of that government whether or not I’m the president,”, she said to India Today TV in October.
Image credit: Ye Aung Thu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
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