Suu Kyi set to win majority in Myanmar election

Nov 11, 2015 (LBO) - Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition is set to win a majority in Myanmar’s first free election in decades, although it is unclear if the party will secure the required two-thirds to appoint the next president by itself, media reports said.



Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) is expected to secure a majority and has claimed 107 of the 120 seats announced so far. Final results won't be known for days.



Twenty five percent of the 664 parliamentary seats are set aside for the army, and the NLD will need two-thirds of the seats if it wants to select the next president by itself. Speaking to media, Suu Kyi claimed victory of 75 percent of the contested seats.





The military-backed Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) has been in power since 2011 when the country began its transition from decades of military rule. Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi is seen as the best hope for transition to democracy in Myanmar and has been under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years.