NAY PYI TAW -- Hundreds of lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy were sworn into Myanmar's parliament on Monday, with enough seats to choose the country's first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962.
The NLD won some 80% of elected seats in November's historic vote, catapulting it to power as Myanmar's ruling party after decades of struggle that saw many of its members imprisoned.
But the junta-drafted constitution means the party will have to share power with the army that for years suppressed, often brutally, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and her allies.
The first sitting of the NLD-dominated parliament is another step in Myanmar's drawn-out transition, which started with the election and will go on until the NLD government officially begins its term in April after parliament has picked a president.
The lower house's first act Monday was to elect a new chairman, Win Myint, a member of the NLD's central executive committee, and a deputy chairman, T Khun Myat, a member of Thein Sein's party. Both were nominated by the NLD.
"Today is an honourable day for the democratic transition in Myanmar," Win Myint said in his first speech to parliament. He urged representatives to "understand each other, co-operate with each other and work for the benefit of the country and the people."
"This is Myanmar's first parliament in years that was chosen by the people," Pyon Cho, who is now a lawmaker and spent 20 years in jail as a member of the anti-junta group the 88 Generation Students, told Reuters.
New National League for Democracy lawmakers arrive for the opening of the new parliament in Nay Pyi Taw Feb 1. (Reuters photo)
"We have the majority. We have the duty to fulfil our manifesto and change the lives of the people in this country."
"We expect big change for the country," Soe Paing Htay, an NLD representative for Myeik township, told Bloomberg News. "We don't know our party plan on what to do. I view that there are weaknesses in the constitution, so i think we need to change the constitution fast."
Some new members looked disoriented as they wandered through the enormous parliament building in the purpose-built capital raised by the junta in secret from the rice paddies.
Mrs Suu Kyi, who entered parliament Monday through a side door and gave no comment to the press, has given little hint as to who she will choose for the presidency or to lead key ministries.
"I don't think it has all been decided for sure," Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, told Bloomberg.
"Probably both because the party is inexperienced in these areas, and this is the first-go-round, and because they want to informally float a whole range of names past military leaders and other important players, to see if these names are acceptable."
The presidential nomination process is likely to take place later in the month, NLD members told Reuters.
Under the 2008 constitution, Mrs Suu Kyi is barred from taking the position because her children are not Myanmar citizens. She has given no indication as to who will take over from outgoing President Thein Sein and the NLD has no clear number two.
In control
Mrs Suu Kyi has said she will be "above the president" and in complete control of the government, but the NLD has not explained how she will do this.
New National League for Democracy lawmakers arrive for the opening of the new parliament in Nay Pyi Taw Feb 1. (Reuters photo)
Each of the parliament's two chambers will choose a presidential candidate and the military officials who hold a quarter of seats will also put forward their own nominee.
A combined session of the chambers will then vote on the three candidates. The winner will become president, with the other two serving as vice presidents.
This week, the NLD will focus on appointing parliamentary speakers, who were announced last week. It will also prepare for the start of state and regional assemblies on Feb 8, some in places dominated by large ethnic minorities such as Shan state in the east or Rakhine in the west.
Expectations are towering for Mrs Suu Kyi, who is regarded with an almost religious zeal in the Southeast Asian nation. Mrs Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest after the NLD won an election in 1990. The junta never recognised the result of that vote.
Myanmar's 51.5 million people expect the NLD to fix everything, from completing the transformation of an economy stunted by decades of isolation to bringing peace to states riven by ethnic conflict.
"They (people) hope that every problem will be solved automatically after the NLD becomes the government, FDI (foreign direct investment) will come in," said Shwe Mann, the outgoing speaker of parliament, who is close to Mrs Suu Kyi despite being a former leader of the junta-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party.
"To accomplish the challenges, they need to choose the right people and put them in right positions," said Shwe Mann. "This is also my main concern, because it will decide the performance of her government."
"The NLD government will benefit from unrivalled and unprecedented access to international resources and foreign investment," Bloomberg quoted Herve Lemahieu, a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, as saying. "But making sound decisions about foreign involvement -- balancing the interests of Asean, China, Japan and the West -- in the country's ongoing transformation will not be easy."