Myanmar opposition says Suu Kyi led party to landslide victory

The party of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said she had led it to a landslide election victory Sunday, setting the stage for her to take public office for the first time and head a small opposition bloc in the military-dominated parliament. As results came in Sunday night from the poll watchers of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, party spokesman and campaign manager Nyan Win projected it would win 40 of 45 parliamentary seats at stake.Other party members, who asked not to be named because they were waiting to verify some returns, said they achieved a clean sweep of all 44 seats they contested. No official results were expected before Monday. Independent verification of the vote was not possible. The victory, if confirmed, would mark a major milestone in the Southeast Asian nation, where the military has ruled almost exclusively for a half-century and where a new reform-minded government is seeking legitimacy and a lifting of Western sanctions. It would also mark the biggest prize of Ms. Suu Kyi's political career, and a spectacular reversal of fortune for the 66-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate who the former junta had kept imprisoned in her lakeside home for the better part of two decades. A digital signboard outside the National League for Democracy's headquarters in Myanmar's main city, Yangon, announced in the late afternoon that Ms. Suu Kyi had won a seat. Supporters gathered by the thousands began wildly shouting upon learning the news, chanting “We won! We won!” while clapping, dancing, waving red party flags and gesturing with thumbs-up and V-for-victory signs. As more counts came in from the NLD's poll watchers around the country, the crowd grew to as many as 10,000. The party's security guards tried without success to keep the traffic flowing past the people occupying much of the road and all nearby sidewalks. Party executive Soe Win said Ms. Suu Kyi had won in 128 of the 129 voting stations in Kawhmu, the constituency south of Yangon that she contested. He said the party had reports of irregularities in the sole holdout.