Myanmar's president touts historic vote

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Myanmar's president said yesterday that elections won by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her party were successful, issuing the first government endorsement of the historic polls.

When asked by The Associated Press whether he thought the weekend by-elections were free and fair, President Thein Sein said: "It was conducted in a very successful manner."

Thein Sein's remark was the first comment by a top government official since Sunday's polls. He spoke on the sidelines of a summit in Cambodia of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, which gave him a vote of confidence yesterday.

Cambodia, in its capacity as ASEAN chair, welcomed the conduct of the polls and called for Western nations to lift the crippling economic and political sanctions imposed on Myanmar because of repression by its previous military regime.

"We urge the international community to consider lifting economic sanctions on Myanmar so that the people of Myanmar can enjoy better opportunities in realizing their aspirations for peace, national reconciliation, democracy and national development," Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong was quoted saying in a news release from the group. "This election process is a step forward towards democratization, and a positive step."

The imperative to ease the sanctions, which hindered economic development, is generally considered to be the impetus for political reforms initiated by Thein Sein, particularly reconciliation with Suu Kyi and the country's pro-democracy movement.

The weekend vote in Myanmar will fill just 45 vacant seats in the country's 664-seat Parliament but took on historic significance because of Suu Kyi's presence. After two decades as a political prisoner, Suu Kyi won a victory that marked a turn in her political career and for the country as it emerges from a half-century of military rule.

The Election Commission confirmed late yesterday that Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy took 43 seats of the 45 available, losing only in distant Shan state to an ethnic Shan party candidate. In one constituency, the NLD candidate was disqualified before the polls and the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party won.