Suu Kyi vows to run govt if NLD wins Myanmar election

Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday she would run the country “above the president” if her National League for Democracy (NLD) wins Sunday’s election, although she has been prohibited by the charter to take the top government job.
“I already have a plan. I will run the government and then we will have a president who will work in accordance with the procedures of the NLD,” Suu Kyi said.
“I will also lead the party if NLD wins the elections, regardless of who will be appointed the president. If the NLD wins the elections and we are able to form the government, I shall lead it. Then you do not need to worry about a democratic leader in the country.”
“If we manage to form the government, we will be able to change the country. We are sure we will not disappoint the people. I already have a plan. I will be above the president. For now, I do not want to reveal who it will be,” she said.
The popular NLD is poised to win the election but analysts in Yangon doubted whether it would get a majority in parliament to form a single-party government.
More than 30 million eligible voters in Myanmar will cast their ballots for 330 seats in the Lower House and another 168 for the Upper House while the military has its quota of 25 per cent of the two houses combined – 110 non-elected military officers in the Lower House and 56 in the Upper House.
If the NLD gets less than a majority, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) could forge an alliance with other small parties and the military to win support in parliament and take the presidency as well as form the government.
The 2008 Constitution prohibited a person who has a foreign parent, spouse and children to take the top job in the government. Suu Kyi was married to a British citizen, now deceased, and has two children who hold British citizenship.
Yesterday was the last day of campaigning for 91 political parties for Sunday’s general election. More than 30 million eligible voters were set to cast their ballots for a functional democracy at nearly 50,000 stations throughout the nation.
The Election Commission, however, is unable to open polling stations for voters in many areas due to natural disasters and tensions due to armed conflict between the military and ethnic groups.
Many areas in Kachin, Karen, Mon, Shan states and Bago Region, will not be ready for voting on Sunday, according to the EC.
The government signed a ceasefire agreement with eight armed ethnic groups last month but many groups have not signed up for the truce and armed conflict continues in many areas.
However, the atmosphere for the election is relatively free as political parties were allowed to campaign freely although there were some complaints of irregularities in some areas.
This will be the first time in 25 years that the two major rivals – the ruling USDP and the opposition NLD – have both entered the fray. The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 but the military junta refused to hand over executive power to the party to run the country.
The junta controlled the country for decades but there has been relaxation and reforms in recent years when the country got a new constitution in 2008 and a general election was called in 2010, which was boycotted by the NLD.
Suu Kyi and her NLD got a chance to sit in parliament after the by-elections in 2012.
AFP reported that Suu Kyi’s comments on Thursday are likely to be seen as both a challenge to the army’s parliamentary dominance and a rallying cry to her supporters who view her as the fulcrum of Myanmar’s democracy struggle.
But the Nobel Peace Prize winner also struck a note of caution over the reforms so far, labelling them “a veneer”, while questioning the will of election officials to tackle irregularities. Asked how vigilant she was to the possibility of poll fraud she said, if suspicions are raised “we will have to make a fuss about it”.
But she added it was important for her party to run a government of “national reconciliation” if the NLD wins, adding: “I do not believe in persecution or revenge.”