Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi made it clear yesterday that she was ready to defy the powerful military's attempts to clip her wings, as fresh results from yesterday's historic election showed her party heading for a resounding win.

She told the BBC that she believes her party has won a parliamentary majority, in her first interview since the historic elections.

Suu Kyi said the polls were not fair but "largely free". She said

FROM PAGE 16

there had been‘ areas of intimidation".

Early results point to a sweeping victory for her National League for Democracy (NLD), but final official results will not be known for days.

The election was seen as the most democratic in Myanmar for 25 years.

A quarter of Myanmar's 664 parliamentary seats are set aside for the army, and for the NLD to have the winning majority it will need at least two-thirds of the contested seats.

But Suu Kyi told the BBC that her party has surpassed that, and has won around 75%.

The military-backed Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) has been in power in Myanmar since 2011 when the country began its transition from decades of military rule to a civilian government.

Results from Sunday's election are slowly being announced. The election commission said the NLD had won 78 of the 88 seats declared so far for the 440-strong lower house. The USDP had won five seats.

In the first results for the upper house declared yesterday, the NLD won 29 of 33 seats while the USDP won two. Results for the regional assemblies also showed the NLD well ahead, reported Reuters.

Election monitors from the USbased Carter Center, who observed 245 polling stations, described the elections in most areas as "competitive and meaningful" with generally well-conducted voting and counting, reported Associated Press news agency.

The group noted several problems,

however - including the barring of members of the country's Rohingya Muslim minority from voting, a lack of transparency in the advance voting process and inconsistency in making preliminary results available at the constituency level.

NLD spokesman Win Htein has accused the election commission of "delaying intentionally" the release of results, saying "they are trying to be crooked".

Whichever party wins, Suu Kyi cannot be chosen as president because the constitution blocks people with foreign offspring from holding the post.

She has always said she would lead the country anyway.

Yesterday she said she would find a president as required, but "that won't stop me from making all the decisions as the leader of the winning party".

When asked if this was fair, she said: " I believe in transparency and accountability... it works much better if I'm open about it, ifl tell the people."

Clause 58 of the country's constitution states that the president "takes precedence over all other persons" in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The selection of the president is not expected to take place until at least February.

About 30 million people were eligible to vote in Sunday's election in Myanmar. Turnout was estimated at about 80%.

But hundreds of thousands of people - including the Rohingya, who are not recognised as citizens - were denied voting rights.