What next for Burma?

(Vatican Radio) Aung San Suu Kyi's party was in high spirits on Monday, confident that it was headed for a landslide victory in Burma’s elections.

The opposition National League of Democracy (NLD) said it won about 70 percent of the votes already counted.

If confirmed, it would suggest that Suu Kyi's party would not only dominate Parliament but could also secure the presidency despite handicaps built into the constitution.

So what next for Suu Kyi and her party, if a landslide victory becomes a reality?

Burma’s constitution guarantees 25 percent of seats in parliament to the military. There is also an impediment to the Nobel Laureate becoming President herself due to a constitutional clause.

Speaking to Lydia O’Kane, Mark Farmaner from the Burma Campaign UK said that the NLD will face enormous challenges if elected.

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A president for example, he says, “can’t choose key ministers, so for example the Minister for Defense, the Home Affairs Minister and the Border Affairs Minister, all critical posts, are all chosen by the military and will be serving soldiers answerable to the military, so you’re going to have a situation where the NLD government won’t have control over the army, won’t have control over the police, the security services…”

Farmaner says the obvious thing that the new government should be doing is, using their power in parliament to repeal the whole raft of repressive laws that are used to arrest people because of their political beliefs, or their religion.