President says Burma poll ‘very successful’

Burma’s president said that elections won by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her party were successful, issuing the first government endorsement of the historic polls.

President Thein Sein’s remark was the first comment by a top government official since Sunday’s vote. He told reporters in Cambodia, where the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) conference is taking place: “It was conducted in a very successful manner.”

Cambodia, which is chairing the conference, called for Western nations to lift the economic and political sanctions on Burma in response to the poll.

Hor Namhong, Cambodia’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, said: “We urge the international community to consider lifting economic sanctions so that the people can enjoy better opportunities in realising their aspirations for peace, national reconciliation, democracy and national development.

“This election process is a step forward towards democratisation, 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 Mr Sein, particularly reconciliation with Ms Suu Kyi and the country’s pro-democracy movement.

Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said: “He [Thein Sein] said to me the process was more important than the result, which I think is the right attitude because the process is part of national reconciliation.”

The weekend vote in Burma will fill just 45 vacant seats in the country’s 664-seat parliament but took on historic significance because of Ms Suu Kyi’s presence, after two decades as a political prisoner.

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