Aung San Suu Kyi's Party Wins Historic Majority in Myanmar Polls

Yangon: Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition on Friday won a parliamentary majority from weekend polls that will allow it to elect a president and form a government in a historic shift in power from the army.

The election, the first Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party has contested since 1990, saw a huge turnout that has yielded more than 80 percent of seats for the NLD.

After a drip-feed of results from the Union Election Commission, the NLD on Friday sailed through the two-thirds majority it needs to rule, claiming 348 parliamentary seats with a number of results yet to be declared.

Government now beckons for Suu Kyi's party in a seismic change of the political landscape in a country controlled for five decades by the military.

A comfortable majority gives Suu Kyi's party control of the lower and upper houses, allowing it to elect the president and form the government.

A big majority gives Suu Kyi, 70, leverage in the political wrangling ahead with a military establishment that has been chastened at the polls but retains sweeping powers.

Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by a junta-scripted constitution, which also guarantees the army a 25 percent bloc of seats.

She has already vowed to govern from "above the president" saying she will circumnavigate the charter ban by appointing a proxy for the top office.

The NLD "will be able to pass whatever law they want, they won't need to form coalitions, they won't need to reach out across the aisle," independent Myanmar analyst Richard Horsey told AFP.

But during the transition the NLD will need to be mindful "to keep everyone on board," he added.