Myanmar’s opposition party leader Aung San Suu Kyi has won the parliamentary majority in the weekend polls that will allow it to elect a president and form a government in a historic shift in power from the army. Results from the Union Election Commission states that, the NLD has sailed through the two-thirds majority it needs to rule, by claiming 348 parliamentary seats with a number of results yet to be declared.

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party have secured a historic majority in the Myanmar’s parliament, making it possible for them to form the Southeast Asian country’s first truly civilian government in more than half-a-century. Suu Kyi’s victory had been widely expected, but few have anticipated a landslide of such dramatic proportions.

The huge majority gives Suu Kyi, 70, a leverage in the political wrangling ahead with the military establishment that has been chastened at the polls, but retains sweeping powers. Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by a junta-scripted constitution, which guarantees the army a 25% bloc of seats. Suu Kyi has already vowed to govern from "above the president" saying that she will circumnavigate the charter ban by appointing a proxy for the top office.

The NLD "will be able to pass whatever law they want, they won't need to form coalitions, they won't need to reach out across the aisle," said independent Myanmar analyst Richard Horsey. But during the transition the NLD will need to be mindful "to keep everyone on board," he added.

Suu Kyi has called for a "national reconciliation talks" with President Thein Sein and army chief Min Aung Hlaing. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon congratulated Suu Kyi for her election win. Myanmar’s military, had took over the power in a 1962 coup and brutally suppressed several pro-democracy uprisings during its rule and gave way to Thein Sein’s nominally civilian elected government in 2011 with strings attached.

By Premji