Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has congratulated the people of Myanmar for their “political awakening”, hinting at the victory the National League for Democracy expects as the country awaits official confirmation of the results from yesterday’s parliamentary elections.





In her first speech since the vote, the NLD leader spoke outside party headquarters in Yangon this morning, saying the losers should accept defeat with courage and a smile.

“Until now the election results have not been announced officially. But we think that the people will have a good picture in their mind of what the situation could be,” she said.

Despite her clear message that her supporters should stay patient, there was anxiety within her party and among international observers over the timing of the results.

The Union Election Commission had said yesterday that first incomplete results would be released at 9am today. That was put back until 3pm and then to 6pm, with a press conference scheduled at 4pm by UEC chair U Tin Aye in the capital Nay Pyi Taw.

Meanwhile the NLD has issued a formal complaint to the UEC over what it said was a decision last night to instruct townships to communicate their results directly to the UEC in Nay Pyi Taw rather than up the chain of authority to the district and then the state/region level.

In theory this move could speed up the release of results, but it also gives the UEC more control over the flow of information. Some townships however were continuing this morning to release their results and some said they had not heard of the new procedure.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said it was not yet the right time to congratulate the successful NLD candidates, saying she first congratulated the people “for their political awakening, encouragement and discipline” but also those candidates who lost.





However she did single out NLD party patron U Tin Oo for congratulation for playing the important role of leading the campaign committee. The 88-year-old former defence minister is seen as one of her possible choices to be nominated as president.

Last week she made clear at her pre-vote press conference that she would be “above” the president, given the clause in the 2008 constitution that bars her from that post because her sons are foreign nationals.

Diplomats and observers said they were anxious about the timing of the results, but did not expect the military to annul them, as they did in 1990 when the NLD swept to victory in the last inclusive elections held by Myanmar.

“No reason not to accept election results,” was today’s page three headline in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar, quoting senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander in chief.

The front page declared “Dawn of a New Era”. For some political careers however it might be more of a sunset moment.

Among the many senior casualties in the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party was U Shwe Mann, the Speaker of parliament who conceded defeat in Pyu, Bago Region, to his NLD opponent this morning via Facebook.

U Htay Oo, who replaced U Shwe Mann as party chair in August after an internal power struggle, lost to his NLD rival in Hinthada in Ayeyarwady Region.

The scale of the opposition party’s hoped-for victory may however remain in doubt for some days until full results come in.

Parliament does not form a government but it will elect the next president in February 2016.

With 25 per cent of seats allocated to the non-elected military, the NLD would need to win more than two-thirds of the elected seats in the two chambers of parliament to secure an overall absolute majority. However in a two-round voting system for president and two vice presidents, the NLD could secure its nomination for the top job with a simple majority.

What is certain is that thanks to the 2008 constitution which it crafted, the military will retain enormous powers, including three key ministers who do not answer to the president, senior positions in the civil service and enormous business interests.