Myanmar: Reflections on Election Results

Myanmar voters celebrated in the streets while netizens on Facebook are expressing their elation over the by-election results which saw an unprecedented landslide victory for the opposition.

Results [my] showed that 43 out of 45 parliament seats went to the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), including one for its leader and global democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. Though the number of opposition seats is relatively small compared to the total 600 seats in parliament, Myanmar citizens believe that the victory of opposition candidates is part of the transition towards democracy.

Wai Soe happily notes [dead link] that Facebook comments were mostly about the elections and not April Fools’ Day during the by-elections:

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi

Today very happy coz all I've seen today facebook page are not april fool ………… :) :) :) ♥ ♥ ♥ ,,, smiling on every face

Su Myat Lwin simply expressed her happiness with this phrase:

We win!

“We” could refer to more than 50 million Myanmar citizens.

Voters who participated in the 1990 election which was dominated by NLD are happy that Aung San Suu Kyi's party emerged successful again this year. But for younger voters, especially first-time voters, many are proud of Zay Yar Thaw, one of the four pioneers of Hip-Hop music in Myanmar, who won a seat for NLD. Yan Yan Chan, a rapper from ACID music group, posted a photo of his friend made by Linn Yaung.

Than Thar Win who is a well-known singer posted the activities and celebrations on the street where the NLD Headquarters is located:

just got back home..People are celebrating in front of NLD's main office at Shwegone dine. Yayyyy!!!

Despite the spontaneous celebrations by huge crowds, Aung San Suu Kyi sent a reminder[my] to the representatives of her party to avoid the activites that could let other parties and their members down.

On the other hand, some emphasized the need to promote more reforms in governance by taking the success of this election as the first important step in the journey towards democracy. Cho Zin Wint commented [dead link] on an article shared by Nyein Chan Htwe:

Yes, we all need to understand that it may take quite sometimes to reform.. We shouldn't expect a lot..

Myint Mo Oo shared her feelings  and thoughts for the future of the country as well:

The day we've been waiting for. Our dream finally coming true. Now it's our duty to be united, uphold discipline and be respectful towards each other so that we can successfully and peacefully build a better future for our country and its people.

At the same time, the key words “Aung San Suu Kyi” trended on Twitter as a result of large interest from the international community on the by-elections in Myanmar. Tracy Nang posted [dead link] a screen shot of worldwide Twitter trend that included Aung San Suu Kyi:

I am shaking. Can't believe still. We tried so many times to trend her name. Today was a fairytale!!!!! Aung San Suu Kyi. Top 7, WORLDWIDE TREND.

After the results are confirmed by government news agency MRTV, Myanmar netizens switched topics in their conversations from election related things to the list of TIME's Top 100 influential people in 2012. The list includes both the president of Myanmar and the country's main opposition leader.

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