Yangon (dpa) – Myanmar’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) expressed optimism Monday as ballots were being counted in the country’s first openly contested elections for 25 years.
“It is too early to congratulate our candidates,” party leader Aung San Suu Kyi said at the party headquarters, “but I think you all have an idea of the results.”
NLD spokesman Win Htein said early Monday that the party is expecting to win at least 80 per cent of the contested seats.
There have been no opinion or exit polls in the country, which was under military rule from 1962 to 2011, and is currently governed by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
The Union Election Commission (UEC) stated overnight that voter turnout was around 80 per cent. The results would be counted and released as they came in for each township, with the first announcement expected Monday 3 pm (0830 GMT), it said.
The NLD declared victory in several constituencies late Sunday based on unofficial tallies.
Parliament Speaker and former USDP leader Shwe Mann conceded the loss of his seat in Phyu, around 200 kilometres north of Yangon.
“I congratulate Thein Nyunt of the National League for Democracy on his win,” he posted on Facebook.
The NLD lodged a complaint with the UEC about advance ballots arriving at polling stations after midnight, well past the 4 pm deadline when the stations closed, an official told dpa.
“This is against election law,” said Sai Leik, spokesman for the NLD-aligned Shan Nationalities Democratic Party, adding it happened in the north and east where the NLD was ahead in the count.
The United States praised the “peaceful and historic” elections, but called on the country for transparent results.
The polls are “an important step forward,” Secretary of State John Kerry said, but he noted “impediments to the realization of full democratic and civilian government.”
These include the ongoing disenfranchisement of minority Rohingya Muslims, and the reservation of unelected seats for the military, he said.
The NLD boycotted the previous elections in 2010 over a clause in the constitution that bars Suu Kyi from becoming president, as her sons are British.
In the vote before that, in 1990, the NLD won a solid majority, but the result was ignored by the military government, in power in different forms since 1962.
The ruling USDP have so far made no post-election statement.
Suu Kyi warned her supporters not to be too boastful in victory, nor to congratulate the candidates until they prove themselves in office. “Let’s wait to see whether they are working for the people,” she said.
