Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won Myanmar’s elections on Friday with an overwhelming majority of the vote. She has come under international fire for allegations of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017.
The “landslide” victory shows that the people of Myamar still have faith in Aung San Suu Kyi, a party spokesman said. According to domestic and foreign observers, the elections were fair.
So far, the National League for Democracy (NLD) has won 368 seats in parliament in last Sunday’s elections. To form a government, a party needs at least 322 seats.
Aung San Suu Kyi plans to work with 39 ethnic minority political parties in the country and has invited them to join a government of “national unity,” said the NLD spokesman.
Disappointment among ethnic minorities
It is the second democratic election in the country since the end of the military junta. Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest for 15 years during the military dictatorship.
Although it remains popular among a large part of the population, there is discontent among minorities in the country. They believe that she mainly stands up for the Buddhist majority. Conflict continues to exist in several regions, including Rakhine State. About 1.5 million voters in areas where many ethnic minorities live were not allowed to vote for security reasons, writes The Guardian.
Myanmar’s military is accused of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017, killing 15,000 to 25,000 people. More than 1.1 million Rohingya have fled and still do not have Myanmar citizenship. Aung San Suu Kyi denies genocide, but speaks of targeted military action against rebels.
– .
