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Myanmar’s opposition party shows strong start in elections occupying 94% of seats

Myanmar’s opposition party shows strong start in elections occupying 94% of seats

Posted November. 11, 2015 08:53,   

한국어

In the historic general elections in Myanmar, the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition party led by the female leader Aung San Suu Kyi, is making strides towards unrivaled election victory, winning more than 90 percent of the votes across the country with roughly one third of the ballots for a total of 491 elective officials having been counted so far.

According to foreign news outlets including the Associated Press, the early results tallied until 9:00 p.m. on Oct. 9 (local time, 11:30 p.m. in Korean time) indicated that the NLD won 154 out of the 164 seats (93.9 percent) for the upper and lower houses in four states out of 14 states, which was reported by the Myanmar Times.

In the case of the largest city of Yangon, 44 out of the 45 seats in the lower house and 12 seats in the upper house went to the NLD. In Ayeyarwaddy state, the opposition party carried all 26 and 12 seats of the lower and upper houses. The party won 27 seats out of the 28 lower house seats and all 12 seats in the upper house in Bago, while securing 11 out of the 19 seats in the lower house and all 10 seats in the upper house.

The international community welcomed the election results. “The election process in Myanmar is encouraging and represents an important step Burma’s democratic process,” White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said, referring to the name the country used previously. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement, saying, “I congratulate the people of Myanmar on their patience, dignity, and enthusiasm.”



jkim@donga.com