Myanmar opposition party accuses government of intentionally delaying election results

Supporters of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi celebrate her landslide victory

(Image credit: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 10 November 2015

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Tuesday that her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won about 75 percent of the seats in the 664-seat parliament, but the official results from Sunday's election are trickling in. As of early Tuesday, the government of the military-backed Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) has announced the results for only 88 seats, with the NLD winning 78 of those and the USDP just five. The slow pace has NLD officials nervous.

The election commission is "delaying intentionally because maybe they want to play a trick or something," NLD spokesman Win Tien said after a meeting Tuesday at Suu Kyi's residence. "It doesn't make sense that they are releasing the results piece by piece. It shouldn't be like that," he added. "They are trying to be crooked." Suu Kyi herself was more upbeat, telling the BBC that unlike after her party's landslide victory in 1990, this time the military would respect the results. "I find that the people are far more politicized now than they were," she said, "so it's much more difficult for those who wish to engage in irregularities to get away with it."

Myanmar's constitution, written by the military junta, dictates that a quarter of the seats in parliament be reserved for unelected members of the military, and Suu Kyi is barred from being named president by the legislature. On Tuesday, Suu Kyi said that she will be "making all the decisions as the leader of the winning party" anyway, with a colleague holding the office as a stand-in. When the BBC asked her if that was fair, much less legal, she responded: "I believe in transparency and accountability... it works much better if I'm open about it if I tell the people."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.