RANGOON, Myanmar — Aung San Suu Kyi’s political allies on Monday predicted a comprehensive victory in Myanmar’s elections – a landslide win based on strong early results that prompted their military-backed opponents to begin to speak glumly of defeat.
That would be a triumph for Suu Kyi, who has been revered at home and worldwide since she emerged as an advocate for democracy in 1988 and suffered years under house arrest. But weeks of uncertainty could follow as she tries to form a government and find a way around a constitutional provision that bars her from becoming president.
Twenty-five years ago, she and her allies won an election here, but those results were overturned by the military officers running the country. For the past five years Myanmar has been making fitful steps towards democracy, encouraged by the United States and other countries. Experts see this election as a test of whether the generals are truly able to loosen their grip on power.
In Rangoon, the nation’s largest city, Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy captured 23 seats in the regional parliament out of the first 24 to be decided. For the second night in a row, party supporters gathered in front of the NLD headquarters here, clapping, singing, chanting and waving red balloons to celebrate vote totals.
Nyan Win, a senior law adviser to the party, said that NLD candidates had won at least 60 percent of seats in the national parliament but that the party was still waiting for the final results.
The party would have to get 67 percent of the total seats for an absolute majority and the chance to select the next president without having to form an alliance with any of the 90-plus smaller parties. Myanmar’s constitution, drawn up by its military rulers in 2008, still reserves 25 percent of seats in the upper and lower houses of parliament for the military.
More than a dozen prominent leaders of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), backed by the military, were defeated at the polls. Htay Oo, its acting chairman, told Reuters simply, “We lost.” T-shirts quickly appeared in front of NLD headquarters that said, “We won.”
Some USDP members said they had not done enough to ensure victory.
The celebration of NLD supporters came a day after millions in Myanmar voted peacefully in the country’s first democratic elections since 1990. The nation of 51 million, also known as Burma, was long isolated from the world under its repressive military dictatorship.
Suu Kyi, 70, appeared at the NLD headquarters on Monday morning before cheering supporters, saying it was too early to congratulate winners. But, she said, “I think you all have an idea of the results.”
“Victory or failure, that is not important,” she said. “What is important is how we win or lose. Those who lose should bravely concede, while those who win should humbly celebrate the victory. That is a true democracy.”
When the military junta began reforms in 2010, Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, other political prisoners also were freed, and censorship and Internet access relaxed. The United States responded enthusiastically by easing stiff sanctions and providing nearly $500 million in aid. Hillary Rodham Clinton visited once while secretary of state, and President Barack Obama has come twice.
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