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News > World

Myanmar Military Vows to Respect Election Results This Time

  • Aung San Suu Kyi stickers for sale are seen at the National League for Democracy headquarters ahead of Sunday's general election in Yangon, Myanmar.

    Aung San Suu Kyi stickers for sale are seen at the National League for Democracy headquarters ahead of Sunday's general election in Yangon, Myanmar. | Photo: Reuters

Published 8 November 2015
Opinion

Myanmar's commander-in-chief says there is “no reason” the military would reject Sunday's election results.

Myanmar's top military official said Sunday electoral results would be respected if the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) wins the country's elections.

"If the people choose them (the NLD), there is no reason we would not accept it,” military Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing said, according to Reuters.

The statement appeared to rule out a repeat of Myanmar's 1990 election, when the military ignored the result. The NLD's leader Aung San Suu Kyi easily secured victory in the vote 25 years ago, but instead went on to spend around two decades behind bars for opposing the military junta.

The NLD is again poised for victory, and is widely expected to secure a clear majority of the popular vote.

Myanmar’s military rulers began moving to democracy in 2008 and held elections in 2010 that empowered the country’s current government, led by the junta-formed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

That election was boycotted by much of the country’s opposition. Myanmar’s military continues to hold significant sway in the country, directly appointing 25 percent of the country’s parliament.

This time around there is no boycott. Still, even if Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy wins the super-majority it needs to appoint the next president, she is constitutionally barred from becoming Myanmar’s head of state herself.

Around 30 million people were eligible to vote in the Southeast Asian country out of a population of over 50 million.

RELATED: Government Committing Genocide in Myanmar

However, one segment of the population that would not be taking part in Sunday’s election are Rohingya Muslims. A primarily Buddhist country, Myanmar denies its Muslim minority – numbering over 1.1 million people – citizenship and basic rights.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar in recent years as a result of government-sanctioned repression, living as stateless people abroad. More than 140,000 are also internally displaced within Myanmar itself, the victims of widespread discrimination and violent mob attacks.

Suu Kyi, winner of a Nobel Peace Prize, has been criticized for her relative silence concerning what human rights organizations call a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar’s Buddhist majority. Unwilling to alienate that majority, she has blamed “both sides” for violence.

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