Myanmar's opposition party celebrates win in historic parliamentary election

This weekend, Myanmar held free parliamentary elections for the first time in 25 years. Thousands of citizens, some of whom had never voted before, proudly displayed purple-inked fingers, a mark of ballot-casting, and awaited news of the winning party.

Today, after three days of post-election limbo, Myanmar’s government announced the triumph of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD’s landslide victory bolsters hope for a transition to democracy after decades of repressive military rule.

Myanmar’s information minister said President Thein Sein, of the defeated Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), will respect the results of the “free and fair elections.” Under Myanmar’s constitution, Suu Kyi is barred from becoming president, but in an ambiguous statement that has raised eyebrows among analysts, she said she will govern “above the president.”

The USDP has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, in a quasi-civilian government since 2011, ushering in a tentative transition to democracy. Aung Kyaw Kyaw, a 29-year-old pharmacist, said he didn’t vote for the USDP because “they were only former military people. If I voted for them, that means I am asking my own enemy to come back into my life.”

Burma’s struggle against military dictatorship is both bitter and longstanding. In 1990, the NLD claimed an undeniable electoral victory, but the ruling junta annulled the results. In 2010, the nation made another attempt at a democratic vote, but the opposition boycotted it, protesting the election laws as unfair. But in 2012, the army-backed USDP was battered in a by-election in which the NLD won 43 of 44 contested parliamentary seats.

Myanmar’s election received cautious plaudits from the United States.

“One election after 50 plus years of military dictatorship is not going to restore democracy, but clearly this was a … step forward for the democratic progress in Burma,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel. “The key thing now is to get through the next several weeks, which will be complicated and delicate and an important time.”

One significant complication facing Buddhist-majority Myanmar is the plight of Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted, stateless minority kept in apartheid-like conditions in coastal Rakhine state. Suu Kyi has been criticized for her silence on the Rohingya issue, and some rights groups say Myanmar has a “poisoned atmosphere” towards Muslims that could easily lead to further clashes between hardline Buddhist monks and minority religious groups. In a pre-election report, the London-based Burma Campaign UK said Suu Kyi’s NLD “has appeared to pander prejudice against Muslims … leaving many Muslims without much hope that the NLD will do much to stop growing anti-Muslim activities.”

Though not without flaws, Myanmar’s historic parliamentary election still brings a glimmer of hope for loosening the military’s stranglehold on the long-repressed nation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.