Myanmar’s ruling NLD party grabs majority of parliamentary seats

Yangon, Nov. 15 (IANS): Myanmar’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, headed by incumbent State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, has won 920 seats, which is an absolute majority in the November 8 general elections, according to the final result announced by the Union Election Commission (UEC) on Sunday.

In the elections, 5,639 candidates vied for 1,117 parliamentary seats — 315 seats in the House of Representatives (Lower House), 161 seats in the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 612 seats in the Regional or State Parliaments and 29 ethnic minority seats in the Regional or State Parliaments, reports Xinhua news agency.

After the UEC’s voting counts completed on Sunday morning, 920 candidates out of 1,106 candidates fielded by the NLD party were elected to three levels of the parliament — 258 seats in the House of Representatives (Lower House) and 138 in the House of Nationalities (Upper Houses), 501 in the Regional or State Parliaments and 23 ethnic minority seats in the Regional or State Parliaments.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) fielded 1,089 candidates and took total 71 seats for the three levels of the parliament — 26 seats for the House of Representatives (Lower House), 7 for the House of Nationalities (Upper Houses) and 38 for the Regional or State Parliaments, the UEC’s figures showed.

Meanwhile, the rest seats were taken by other political parties and independent runners.

President U Win Myint and Suu Kyi won the elections as representatives in the Lower House, while Vice President Henry Van Thio was elected as a representative in the Upper House for the next term of the parliament.

The 2020 general elections were the third under the country’s 2008 Constitution.

According to the 2008 Constitution, the first regular session of a new term of Parliament begins with the House of Representatives which shall be held within 90 days after the commencement of the general elections.

The ruling NLD party won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats in the last general elections on November 8, 2015, and has been at the helm since 2016.