Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi wins parliamentary seat

Aung San Suu Kyi, Chairperson of Myanmar's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), has won a seat in the House of Representatives (Lower House) for the next parliament in the recently-held general elections, the Union Election Commission (UEC) said on Tuesday.

Suu Kyi, the current State Counsellor of Myanmar, competed in Yangon's Kawmhu constituency against rival candidates from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the Union Betterment Party, United Nationalities League for Democracy, Phalon-Sawaw Democratic Party and one independent runner, reports Xinhua news agency.

A total of 5,639 candidates including 1,106 candidates from the ruling NLD party and 1,089 from the USDP vied for the 1,117 parliamentary seats in Sunday's election. As of Tuesday morning, 47 representatives have been elected to Parliament at three levels and the NLD secured 44 parliamentary seats including 12 in the Lower House, eight in the House of Nationalities (Upper House) and 24 in the regional or state parliaments so far, according to the UEC's result announcement.

The USDP won three seats -- one in the Lower House and two in the regional or state parliaments so far. Suu Kyi, the 75-year-old Nobel laureate, had contested a seat in the Lower House in Kawmhu township in the 2012 by-election and 2015 general elections.

The ruling NLD party won an absolute majority of parliamentary seats in the last general elections on November 8, 2015, and has been running the government since 2016. The 2020 general elections are the third election under the country's 2008 Constitution.