2-IN-1 STORY: Suu Kyi Landslide Leaves Myanmar Ethnic Parties Behind

A woman poses next to graffiti depiction of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi outside the headquarters of the National League for Democracy party (NLD) in Yangon on November 13, 2015 ©Ye Aung Thu (AFP)

Myanmar's diverse ethnic minority parties were counting their losses Saturday after Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party won a landslide victory in historic polls. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) has so far scooped 80 percent of elected seats in polls that promise to dramatically redraw the political landscape in a nation stifled for decades under the grip of army rule.

The party sailed past the threshold needed to secure an absolute parliamentary majority Friday, giving it a massive popular mandate with only a few results still trickling out.

AFP report continues:

Parties representing Myanmar's myriad ethnic minority groups have emerged as major losers in the vote, taking just 10 percent of seats in the combined parliament and losing out to the NLD even in regional legislatures.

"Ethnic parties won very few seats. We did not want to see this but it has happened," said Aye Maung, chairman of Arakan National Party (ANP), who lost his own seat to the NLD in violence-torn western Rakhine state.

He voiced concerns over whether "ethnic voices can be heard" now in the new parliament.

Suu Kyi, 70, has said her party supports a federal future and has made ethnic affairs and peace a central pillar of her party manifesto for Myanmar, where ethnic minority groups have fought decades-long wars for greater autonomy.

But she was criticized in the run-up to the polls for failing to reach out to minority parties.

Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government has inked ceasefires with a clutch of ethnic armed groups, but several major conflicts persist.

Myanmar ©Adrian Leung (AFP)

The military launched airstrikes against rebels in eastern Shan state this week even as votes were counted, according to the United Nations.

Authorities cancelled elections in seven national parliament constituencies -- all in Shan -- as well as suspending voting in swathes of northern Kachin state and Karen state in the east.

- Peace hopes -

Manam Tu Ja, chairman of the Kachin State Democracy Party, said a change in government could ease the conflict.

"We will continue to negotiate with the NLD because we are on the same side, working towards democracy," he told AFP.

But he raised concerns that the interests of ethnic areas, which contain a wealth of natural resources, could be sidelined by the NLD, historically seen as a party of the ethnic Bamar majority.

Myanmar is a patchwork of ethnic identities with over 130 officially-recognized minority groups, many with distinct languages and cultures.

The ANP -- Arakan is another word for Rakhine -- is one of the strongest ethnic minority parties in parliament.

It is the voice of nationalist Buddhists in its volatile state, where religious clashes in 2012 left scores dead and displaced tens of thousands of minority Rohingya Muslims.

The party was confident of a clean sweep in Rakhine -- after a shock move by the government earlier this year stripped around half a million Rohingya of their voting rights -- but has secured only 15 seats so far.

Suu Kyi has said she will protect Muslims in the state, despite appearing to bow to growing Buddhist nationalism by fielding no candidates from the minority.

The Nobel laureate has pledged to rule Myanmar regardless of a junta-era constitution that bars her from the presidency, a legally uncertain plan that could stir problems with the army.

The military retains huge power with a quarter of parliamentary seats reserved for unelected soldiers, and military appointees in charge of key security ministries.

But both the army chief and President Thein Sein, whose reforms have opened the country to the world, have vowed to respect the election result.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will on Monday attend a last session of the old parliament, which will continue sitting as a caretaker legislature until January ©Romeo Gacad (AFP)

Myanmar President 'Will Hand Power' To Suu Kyi After Poll Win

AFP reports that Myanmar's President Thein Sein on Sunday said historic polls won in a thumping landslide by Aung San Suu Kyi's party were the consequence of his government's reforms and vowed a smooth transition of power.

The former junta general, who shed his uniform to lead the country's quasi-civilian regime five years ago, said the November 8 polls were testament to the political and economic changes that have swept the former pariah state since the end of junta rule.

"The election is the result of our reform process and as we promised, we were able to hold it very successfully," he told a meeting of political parties in Yangon, in his first public appearance since the polls.

"We will hand this process (of reform) on to a new government," he said, adding "don't worry about the transition" in comments aimed at calming nerves in the country's first attempt at a democratic-style transition for decades.

Addressing representatives of nearly 90 political parties, many of which were trounced by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, the Myanmar leader said elections are the "duty" of a democratic nation.

He appeared sanguine about the resounding defeat of his army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which will slip into opposition in the next parliament -- due to sit from February -- with some ten percent of the elected seats in the national parliament, compared to the NLD's 80 percent.

"The winning party is responsible for carrying out its duty and other opposition parties should provide checks and balances. That is called democracy," he said.

Thein Sein, a slight bespectacled 70-year-old, has steered the country's dramatic opening up after years of isolation, freeing political prisoners, unleashing a long-muzzled press and welcoming foreign investment.

On Sunday he listed tasks for the next government to tackle in the country, which still struggles with high poverty rates and poor education, infrastructure and healthcare after years of junta neglect.

These include national reconciliation, continuing efforts to end ethnic rebellions and pushing forward with development.

- Key talks -

Both the president and army chief have agreed to talks with Suu Kyi in the coming days as the country's political big-hitters look to negotiate a long transition which will see Thein Sein retain his position until March.

Observers say it is imperative that Suu Kyi build friendly ties with the military elite, which retains significant political and economic power.

NLD spokesman Nyan Win, who attended Sunday's Yangon meeting, reaffirmed the party's commitment to "national reconciliation and peace".

Suu Kyi has already travelled to the capital Naypyidaw, where on Monday she will attend a last session of the old parliament, which will continue sitting as a caretaker legislature until January.

Myanmar's President Thein Sein (C) listens to representatives of political parties at the Yangon Regional Government Office in Yangon on November 15, 2015 ©Nicolas Asfouri (AFP)

On Sunday she held talks with the parliament speaker Shwe Mann, a key USDP figure who was tipped as a favourite compromise candidate for president until he was ousted as head of his party by military-backed rivals, including Thein Sein in August.

"She comforted me about the election and congratulated me on accepting the results swiftly," the speaker, who lost his constituency in the polls, said in a post on his official Facebook page.

He said a more formal meeting between the two would take place on Thursday.