In Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party says it has won 70 percent of votes

Preliminary results for Myanmar's first free nationwide election in at least 25 years will be announced Monday afternoon, with Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) saying the party has won roughly 70 percent of the votes already counted in Myanmar's 14 states

"All of these have to be confirmed by the Union Election Commission," NLD spokesman Win Htein told The Associated Press. "But we are sure about those numbers." The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said that out of 30 million eligible voters, an estimated 70 percent cast their ballots, and close to 10,000 election monitors from around the world observed polling stations across Myanmar. The military-backed Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) has been in power since 2011, and under a constitution written by the army, Suu Kyi cannot become president, as she has foreign family members (her late husband was British, and she has two British sons).

The constitution also reserves 25 percent of parliament seats for the army, meaning the NLD needs 67 percent of all contested seats for a majority; if this happens and NLD forms a government, it will be the first one democratically elected since the early 1960s, The Guardian reports. Former ruling party chairman and current house speaker Shwe Mann has already conceded defeat in the Bago region.

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