NDL wins 40 out of 45 seats

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS// Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NDL) won 40 of the 45 seats being contested in the April by-elections. The pro-democracy leader said that she hoped that the elections marked a start of a new era in Burma. Despite the win, the Burmese Parliament remains dominated by the Junta-supported USDP, which holds a majority of the 664 seats. Calling the vote a triumph of the people, Suu Kyi added that her goal was to reconcile with other pro-democracy parties. The United States hailed the win as “an important step in Burma’s democratic transition”. The by-elections were held to fill 45 parliamentary seats after the elections of November 2010 which officially ended the Junta rule. Aung San Suu Kyi’s NDL was competing its first elections after 1990, where it had won a land-slide victory but was debarred from coming into power. The NDL had boycotted the 2010 elections and it was one of the 17 parties to have participated in the elections. Suu Kyi who spent years under house arrest has promised to use her voice to continue to push for further reforms and is hopeful that the other parties will cooperate in creating a “genuinely democratic atmosphere in the country.”