<div>Aung San Suu Kyi called for "national reconciliation" talks with Myanmar's president and the nation's powerful army chief today as her pro-democracy party stood poised for a landslide election victory.<br /><br />Power beckons for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party after it took nearly 90 percent of the seats declared so far.<br /><br />Although poll officials are yet to announce the NLD as winners, Myanmar's balance of power, dominated for half a century by the army and its allies, appears set to be redrawn.<br /><br />But Suu Kyi's supporters remain anxious at how the army will respond to a mauling at the polls, with memories still keen of the 1990 election -- won by the NLD but then swatted away by the army.<br /><br />"Citizens have expressed their will in the election," she said in letters addressed to President Thein Sein, Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing as well as influential parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann.<br /><br />"I would like to invite you to discuss national reconciliation next week at a time of your convenience."<br /><br />The letters, shared by the NLD on Facebook, come as her democracy movement continued its blitz of ruling party bases following Sunday's poll.<br /><br />Thein Sein has agreed to a meeting once the official election results are announced, the country's Information Minister said this afternoon.<br /><br />Suu Kyi's early move to reach out to the army and its political allies shows willingness to work with her former captors -- who kept her under house arrest for 15 years -- to cut through Myanmar's tangled politics.<br /><br />Analysts say difficult months lie ahead, with the army-scripted constitution gifting the military 25 percent of all parliamentary seats and key security posts.<br /><br />The document also blocks the 70-year-old Suu Kyi from becoming president despite her position as the democracy movement's magnetic force.<br /><br />Today, election officials said the NLD took its haul to 163 of the 182 seats declared so far across the lower and upper houses.<br /><br />Suu Kyi retained her seat in Kawhmu constituency.<br />The NLD needs 67 percent of the contested seats to form a majority. But it is eyeing a much bigger margin -- and greater clout inside the new parliament.<br /><br />The democracy figurehead has vowed to rule from "above the president", indicating she will use a proxy to sidestep the bar on her taking the top office.<br /><br />Parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann, a former high ranking general who lost his seat in Sunday's poll, had been tipped as a compromise candidate for the presidency -- although his star has waned inside the USDP. <br /></div>
<div>Aung San Suu Kyi called for "national reconciliation" talks with Myanmar's president and the nation's powerful army chief today as her pro-democracy party stood poised for a landslide election victory.<br /><br />Power beckons for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party after it took nearly 90 percent of the seats declared so far.<br /><br />Although poll officials are yet to announce the NLD as winners, Myanmar's balance of power, dominated for half a century by the army and its allies, appears set to be redrawn.<br /><br />But Suu Kyi's supporters remain anxious at how the army will respond to a mauling at the polls, with memories still keen of the 1990 election -- won by the NLD but then swatted away by the army.<br /><br />"Citizens have expressed their will in the election," she said in letters addressed to President Thein Sein, Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing as well as influential parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann.<br /><br />"I would like to invite you to discuss national reconciliation next week at a time of your convenience."<br /><br />The letters, shared by the NLD on Facebook, come as her democracy movement continued its blitz of ruling party bases following Sunday's poll.<br /><br />Thein Sein has agreed to a meeting once the official election results are announced, the country's Information Minister said this afternoon.<br /><br />Suu Kyi's early move to reach out to the army and its political allies shows willingness to work with her former captors -- who kept her under house arrest for 15 years -- to cut through Myanmar's tangled politics.<br /><br />Analysts say difficult months lie ahead, with the army-scripted constitution gifting the military 25 percent of all parliamentary seats and key security posts.<br /><br />The document also blocks the 70-year-old Suu Kyi from becoming president despite her position as the democracy movement's magnetic force.<br /><br />Today, election officials said the NLD took its haul to 163 of the 182 seats declared so far across the lower and upper houses.<br /><br />Suu Kyi retained her seat in Kawhmu constituency.<br />The NLD needs 67 percent of the contested seats to form a majority. But it is eyeing a much bigger margin -- and greater clout inside the new parliament.<br /><br />The democracy figurehead has vowed to rule from "above the president", indicating she will use a proxy to sidestep the bar on her taking the top office.<br /><br />Parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann, a former high ranking general who lost his seat in Sunday's poll, had been tipped as a compromise candidate for the presidency -- although his star has waned inside the USDP. <br /></div>