By By Aung Hla Tun and Timothy Mclaughlin | Reuters
YANGON/HINTHADA, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar's ruling
party conceded defeat in the country's general election on Monday as the
opposition led by democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on
course for a landslide victory.
"We lost," Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP) acting chairman Htay Oo told Reuters in an interview a day after
the Southeast Asian country's first free nationwide election in quarter
of a century.
The election commission has not yet announced any
results from Sunday's poll, but Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy
(NLD) said that partial counts showed it had won more than 80 percent of
votes cast in the densely populated central regions.
NLD spokesman Win Htein said that outside the central
area, the Nobel peace laureate's party had so far won more than 65
percent of votes cast in the states of Mon and Kayin. Results from the
five other states were not yet known, he added.
It was not yet clear whether the NLD would win the
two-thirds of seats in parliament it needs to form the first
democratically elected Myanmar government since the early 1960s. But,
with a first-past-the-post system for winning constituencies, a
commanding lead in the popular vote makes it likely.
The election was a landmark in the country's unsteady
journey to democracy from the military dictatorship that made it a
pariah state for so long. It is also a moment that Suu Kyi will relish
after spending years under house arrest.
PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY
Whatever the result, Myanmar is heading into a period
of uncertainty over how Suu Kyi and other ascendant parties negotiate
sharing power with the still-dominant military.
Suu Kyi started the contest with a sizeable handicap.
The military-drafted constitution guarantees one-quarter of parliament's
seats to unelected members of the armed forces.
Even if she gets the majority she needs, Suu Kyi is
barred from taking the presidency herself under the constitution written
by the junta to preserve its power. Suu Kyi has said she would be the
power behind the new president regardless of a constitution she has
derided as "very silly".
The military will, however, retain significant power.
It is guaranteed key ministerial positions, the
constitution gives it the right to take over the government under
certain circumstances, and it also has a grip on the economy through
holding companies.
Incomplete vote counts showed some of the most powerful
politicians of the USDP trailing in their bids for parliamentary seats,
indicating a heavy loss for the party created by the former junta and
led by retired military officers.
Among the losers was USDP chief Htay Oo, who told
Reuters from the rural delta heartlands that are a bastion of support
for his party he was "surprised" by his own defeat.
(This story corrects the headline to read "ruling party" concedes defeat)
(Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski and Aubrey
Belford; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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