Suu Kyi hails 'new era for Burma'

Aung San Suu Kyi has said she hopes her victory in a landmark election will mark the beginning of a new era for Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi has said she hopes her victory in a landmark election will mark the beginning of a new era for Burma.

Ms Suu Kyi spoke to thousands of supporters outside her opposition party headquarters, a day after her party claimed she had won a parliamentary seat in closely watched by-elections.

The 66-year-old democracy champion called the election “a triumph of the people”, and said: “We hope this will be the beginning of a new era.”

Official results have not yet been released.

If confirmed, the victory would mark a major milestone in the south-east Asian nation as it emerges from an era of military rule – as well as an astonishing reversal of fortune for a woman who became one of the world’s most prominent prisoners of conscience.

"The success we are having is the success of the people," Ms Suu Kyi said, as a sea of supporters chanted her name and thrust their hands into the air to flash "V" for victory signs.

“It is not so much our triumph as a triumph of the people who have decided that they have to be involved in the political process in this country,” she said. “We hope this will be the beginning of a new era.”

If confirmed, Ms Suu Kyi will take public office for the first time and lead a small bloc of opposition lawmakers in Burma’s military-dominated parliament.

The victory would mark a major milestone in the south-east Asian nation, which is emerging from a ruthless era of military rule, and also an astonishing reversal of fortune for a woman who became one of the world’s most prominent prisoners of conscience.

Unofficial counts continued to trickle in today from poll watchers within Ms Suu Kyi’s party, and spokesman Han Than said the opposition had won at least 43 of the 44 parliament seats it had contested. Those included all four seats up for grabs in the capital, Naypyitaw, which is populated by civil servants and would be an embarrassing sign of defeat for the government.

The former junta had kept Ms Suu Kyi imprisoned in her lakeside home for the better part of two decades. When she was finally released in late 2010, just after a general election that was deemed by most as neither free nor fair, few could have imagined she would so quickly make the leap from democracy advocate to elected official – opening the way for a potential presidential run in 2015.

But Burma has changed dramatically over that time. The junta finally ceded power last year, and although many of its leaders merely swapped their military uniforms for civilian suits, they went on to stun even their staunchest critics by releasing political prisoners, signing cease-fires with rebels, relaxing press censorship and opening a direct dialogue with Ms Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.

Hoping to convince the international community of its progress, Burma invited dozens of Western and Asian election observers to monitor the vote and granted visas to hundreds of foreign journalists.

Ms Suu Kyi herself said on Friday that campaigning had been marred by irregularities and could not be considered fair – allegations her party reiterated yesterday.

Malgorzata Wasilewska, head of the European Union’s observer team, called the voting process “convincing enough” but stopped short of declaring it credible yet. “In the polling stations that I visited ... I saw plenty of good practice and good will, which is very important,” she said.

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