Aung San Suu Kyi’s party takes big election lead

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party made gains in Myanmar’s parliamentary election, with supporters celebrating victory even as the early results came in on Monday, writes Ellen Teague.

As expected, the former political prisoner and opposition leader emerged as the country’s most popular politician, but she may need the support of smaller parties to firm up a majority in a parliament where only 75 per cent of seats are open to be contested. Though her National League for Democracy did well at the polls in early results, the military is automatically allotted one quarter of seats in parliament. Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from becoming president because of a constitutional clause barring anyone with close foreign relatives. She was married to a British national and has two British sons. She has said that whoever might be nominal president, she will be leader. Before polling Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon urged people to vote, saying that voting is a “sacred right”.

Columban missionary Pat Colgan, who visited polling stations, said he found Aung San Suu Kyi’s words after the election, rejecting a “diet of hatred, of fear”, deeply moving.