Cambodia - Myanmar's election smooth and orderly: ASEAN chief

PHNOM PENH: Myanmar's foreign minister told his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Monday that his country's historic by-elections had gone "smoothly", diplomats said.

Myanmar's Wunna Maung Lwin said the vote "has gone rather smoothly, orderly and the participation has been very high," ASEAN chief Surin Pitsuwan said after a meeting of the 10-member block's foreign ministers in Phnom Penh.

The milestone polls on Sunday appeared to give opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- whose landslide general election victory in 1990 was never recognised by the then-ruling junta -- her first seat in parliament.

Wunna Maung Lwin also told the assembled ministers that he hoped the elections would "contribute to a more effective integration of Myanmar into the global community," Surin said.

ASEAN observers were "very encouraged by the orderly manner of this important democratic exercise" in which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) claimed 43 of the 44 seats up for grabs, Surin added.

Cambodian observers declared the by-elections free and fair and heralded the start of a "new era" for the country.

Cambodia said its observer mission, representing their chair of the ASEAN, concluded that Sunday's polls were "conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner".

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa welcomed the by-elections as "an opportunity for Myanmar to make the reform process even more irreversible".

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters the elections were a "vindication of the global community that believed that Myanmar could pursue this democratisation track effectively".

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- a grouping of nearly 600 million people of hugely disparate economic development and political systems.

- AFP/ck/fa


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