HINTHADA, Myanmar, (Reuters) – The acting chairman of Myanmar’s ruling party said he would accept the result of the country’s first free national election in 25 years, as he conceded defeat today to Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition.
Counting was still under way with only a few results officially announced, but preliminary reports from polling stations around the country indicated a wide margin of victory for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
“We lost,” Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) leader Htay Oo told Reuters in an interview.
Htay Oo is a close ally of President Thein Sein and one of several powerful USDP politicians heading for defeat in their constituencies after voters snubbed old-guard establishment figures. He said he had not yet spoken to the president about the result.
The USDP was created by the former junta and led by retired military officers. Some of those trailing in their bids for parliamentary seats were top-ranking officers in the junta that handed power to Thein Sein’s semi-civilian government in 2011 after nearly five decades of military rule.
One of them is the USDP’s Shwe Mann, the speaker of parliament, who conceded defeat in a post on his Facebook page earlier on Monday. He was considered the third-most-powerful member of the junta led by former strongman Than Shwe.
Reuters/Olivia Harris
Although ousted by the president as leader of the USDP in favour of Htay Oo in August, Shwe Mann had been seen as a presidential contender.
“We have to find out the reason why we lost,” the subdued Htay Oo said, speaking at his family home in the town of Hinthada, in the Irrawaddy Delta, where he voted on Sunday.
“However, we do accept the results without any reservations. We still don’t know the final results for sure.”
He also addressed his own defeat to the NLD in his constituency in the delta region considered the heartland of the USDP’s rural support base.
“I wasn’t expecting it because we were able to do a lot for the people in this region.” he said. “Anyway, it’s the decision of the people.”
He attributed Suu Kyi’s wild popularity to her father, independence hero Aung San. Her long period of detention under the former junta also “inflated her popularity”, he said.
Suu Kyi spent 15 of 21 years held under house arrest before her release in late 2010.
Htay Oo said he would spend the rest of the day meeting with local USDP officials to discuss the incoming results and assess how the party could regroup.
