Yangon : Myanmar’s President Thein Sein 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. Thein Sein has steered the country’s dramatic opening up after years of isolation, freeing political prisoners, unleashing a long-muzzled press and welcoming foreign investment.
