Myanmar has just celebrated a historic democratic event that highly likely will become a momentum for this junta nation to leap towards democracy.
On Sunday, November 8, More than 30 million people of Myanmar from various background and communities came to the ballots box to vote for more than 6,000 candidates from 91 political parties, along with 310 independent runners competing for 1,150 seats at three levels of the parliament. This vote was Myanmar’s first general election since its long-ruling military ceded power to President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government in 2011, ushering in a period of reform and opening up to foreign investment.
The vote counting started on Monday and so far has indicated the victory of the opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The latest report on late Monday said that 49 of 54 seats declared are won by NLD.
The full result might take days to finish, yet some quick counts have already signalled the winning of the democracy party. This will be a historical election for Myanmar as it will mark the beginning of a democracy life and the end of ages under the iron grip of junta rule.
Responding to this, Reuters reported that Washington welcomed the election as a victory for Myanmar’s people but said it would watch for the democratic process to move forward before making any adjustments to U.S. sanctions.
