Myanmar's ruling party wins in general elections

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YANGON, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party has won more than enough seats to form a new government in the general elections held across the country on Nov. 8, according to a result announcement by the Union Election Commission (UEC) on Friday.

As of Friday morning, the NLD party has won 346 seats in the Union Parliament -- the House of Representatives (Lower House) and the House of Nationalities (Upper House), passing the target parliamentary seats to win, the UEC's figures showed.

According to the UEC's latest figures, the NLD party has secured 225 seats in the House of Representatives (Lower House), 121 seats in the House of Nationalities (Upper House), 434 seats in the Regional or State Parliaments and eight ethnic minority seats in the Regional or State Parliaments.

Of the current state leaders, President U Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi have secured seats in the House of Representatives (Lower House) while Vice President Henry Van Thio won a seat in the House of Nationalities (Upper House), according to the UEC's daily result announcements.

A total of 5,639 candidates including 1,106 candidates from the NLD and 1,089 from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) ran in this year's multiparty general elections.

The USDP has won 58 parliamentary seats including 25 seats for the Union Parliament and 33 for the Regional or State Parliaments, the UEC's figures showed.

Of the total 1,117 parliamentary seats contested in Sunday's general elections, representatives have been elected for 953 seats for the three levels of the parliament and 64 seats have yet to be announced by the commission.

The NLD party sent a letter to ethnic political parties on Thursday, calling for their participation in establishing a democratic federal union.

The party pledged to prioritize aspirations of ethnic nationalities in the future as the party shares the same goals with the ethnic political parties, the letter said.

The party will continue striving for peace and unity among nationalities in the next term, Monywa Aung, secretary of the NLD, told Xinhua recently.

The 2020 multiparty general elections were the third under the terms of the country's 2008 constitution.

The UEC called off polls in 15 townships and 665 village tracts of Bago region, Kachin, Kayin, Mon, Rakhine, Shan and Chin states in Sunday's general elections, citing that the areas did not meet a condition to hold free and fair elections.

Zaw Htay, spokespersons of the President's Office, told media late Thursday that negotiations will be carried out on running by-elections in the areas where the general elections were cancelled.

The general elections, held every five years, are to produce elected representatives to the next term of the parliament which will further elect the president and two vice presidents and form a new term of government.

The ruling NLD party won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats in the last general elections on Nov. 8, 2015, and has been running the government since 2016.