Suu Kyi's party claims landslide win

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi claimed a by-election landslide for her party on Monday and said she hoped it would mark the beginning of a new era for Myanmar after a historic vote that could prompt the West to ease sanctions. The charismatic Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who led the struggle against military rule in the former Burma for two decades, was one of 44 candidates her National League for Democracy (NLD) said had won all but one of the legislative seats being contested.
The by-elections followed a year of astonishing change in a country that was under the grip of military rule for decades: the government has freed hundreds of political prisoners, held talks with ethnic minority rebels, relaxed media censorship, allowed trade unions and showed signs of pulling back from the economic and political orbit of giant neighbour China.
"It is not so much our triumph as a triumph of the people, who have decided that they must be involved in the political process of this country," Suu Kyi told cheering supporters at the NLD's headquarters in Yangon. "We hope that this will be the beginning of a new era, when there will be more emphasis on the role of the people in the everyday politics of our country. We hope that all other parties that took part in the elections will be in a position to cooperate with us to create a genuinely democratic atmosphere."
The Sunday polls were the NLD's first since 1990, when it trounced the military's proxy party in an election for a constitution-drafting assembly. The junta ignored the result. On Monday, there was no reaction to the NLD's success from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which was formed by the military junta that ceded power a year ago and will remain the biggest party in parliament.
"Nothing to comment on," said one party official. Other officials had switched off their phones. The Election Commission has not announced any results for the elections for 45 seats. If confirmed, the sweep would mean the NLD even won four seats in the capital, Naypyitaw, a new city built by the former junta where most of the residents are government employees and military personnel. They had been expected to back the USDP, the party of most of the cabinet ministers. ASEAN issued a statement on Monday saying it believed the election "was conducted in a free and fair and transparent manner" and urged the West to consider lifting sanctions. Observers who spoke to Reuters said they saw no mass fraud. The 2010 election was condemned as rigged to favour the USDP.