Suu Kyi's camp to form govt after decades of struggle

Naypyitaw

AFTER decades of struggle, hundreds of lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi's camp take over the reins of government in Myanmar on Monday, with enough seats in Parliament to choose the first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962. The National League for Democracy (NLD) won some 80 per cent of elected seats in November's historic vote, but the junta-drafted constitution means that it will have to share power with the army that for years has suppressed, often brutally, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and her allies.

The first sitting of the NLD-dominated Parliament is another step in Myanmar's drawn-out transition which started with the election and will go on until the NLD government officially starts its term in April. "We are likely to announce the president in the second week of February," said Win Htein, a senior member of the party. Other NLD officials said that the presidential nomination process may begin towards the end of the month.