Myanmar: Victory for Aung San Suu Kyi, her party reports

GlobalPost

Through her party, iconic pro-democracy dissident Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be officially claiming a seat in Myanmar's parliament after highly anticipated elections.

Her party, the once-banned National League of Democracy, says their idol can safely assert her victory, according to Reuters and other agencies.

Of all the polling stations today — many of them allegedly marred by fraud —  Aung San Suu Kyi's must have been the easiest to monitor.

Even her rival, a former military doctor allied to the ruling party, appeared to doubt he could possibly defeat a woman with such extraordinary popular appeal. Election watchers likely felt her win was secured early in the day if not months ago.

Now Myanmar awaits a final vote tally for this tiny but historic election. (Tiny because it will only upturn 7 percent of parliament; historic because Myanmar, formerly Burma, has held few legitimate elections since British rule ended after World War II.)

With Aung San Suu Kyi's party having deployed a large number of elections monitors, they may feel emboldened to offer rough and unofficial estimates later this evening (late morning EST).

But this report from exile media outlet Mizzima suggests official results could take one week or more.

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