Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), are heading for a historic landslide victory in Sunday's elections. Although the official results are days away -- the charismatic pro-democracy leader seems certain to control the lower house, and may even have an absolute majority in the parliament as a whole.
"We are running at around 70% of the seats that were contested nationwide," the NLD spokesman, Nyan Win told the Bangkok Post. "But we must be patient and wait for the final official announcement from the election commission," he added. This would give the party an absolute majority, and mean their presidential candidate would be voted in, when the presidential polls take place in early February, and the NLD would be in a position to form the new government and select the chief ministers in the 14 regional authorities.
Already the NLD leaders are deep in discussions with other political actors, and planning their post-election strategy. Their leader and Nobel peace laureate has already contacted some of the leading ethnic minority parties, especially the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) led by Hkun Htun Oo and others that were closely associated with the NLD after the 1990 elections. "We are discussing an alliance in parliament," said a senior source in the SNLD.
With the support of the SNLD and other ethnic parties aligned to the NLD, Ms Suu Kyi plans to build a government of national unity, which will implement the party's plans for national reconciliation and lead to a genuinely democratic and federal state. Apart from this the NLD knows it needs to build a rapport with the country's military leaders -- not the former army men who ran the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
Ms Suu Kyi knows she must find a way to work with the Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) as they remain a key political player in the country's current environment. When she visited Beijing last June, the Chinese president Xi Jinping asked her who was more powerful in Myanmar: the party or the army. The army certainly, she told him. So she can be under no illusions that even with a landslide victory, she must deal with the county's current military commanders.
Whatever the NLD plans for the next government, the military cannot be ignored. A quarter of the MPs in parliament are serving officers, appointed by the army commander, and act on his instructions. Three key ministers in the government -- the Border Affairs, Defence and Home Affairs ministers -- are also serving officers, appointed by the army commander and approved by the president.
But even more significantly, the NLD and the country's military leaders are already in secret contact and talking about a smooth transition when the NLD wins the elections. The first formal contact was made three weeks ago, according to senior sources in the NLD. Before that there were indirect channels of communications through third parties -- businessmen and humanitarians.
While the details of what the two sides have been discussing is strictly secret, former military officers believe the key question will be co-existence in the new order, and a modus operandi. But whatever happens, the Lady will have to negotiate the army's acquiescence to achieve a peaceful and smooth transition.
Although the Commander-in-Chief, Min Aung Hlaing had rebuffed Ms Suu Kyi's attempts to meet him and discuss the political situation, this was largely because of protocol -- it would be inappropriate for the army chief to hold political talks with the opposition leader. But as soon as it was obvious that the NLD leader was going to play a key role in the political process after the elections, Min Aung Hlaing, according to reliable sources made at least two unsuccessful attempts to meet the Lady, prior to the start of the election campaign in August.
Now that the army understands that the NLD may actually be forming the next government, it is imperative that both sides map out a joint approach to the transition to the new era in Myanmar politics. There is a lot to talk about. The presidential candidates, for one: the upper house and the lower house appoint a vice president each, and the military bloc in parliament a third candidate.
Ms Suu Kyi insists the party has its own candidate. It certainly won't be the speaker of the lower house and former chairman of the USDP, Win Htein, a senior party leader close to the Lady, told the Bangkok Post a few weeks ago.
"He would not be accepted by the grassroots of the party," said Nyan Win, another member of the NLD Central Executive Committee. The army would also reject him as a presidential candidate. And now that he has lost his seat in the parliamentary elections, he is certainly a non-starter.
There have been strong hints from party sources that it may be someone who served in the diplomatic service or had international experience, comes from a political connected family, and joined the NLD within the last month. But senior party officials have deflected all speculation, and insisted the proposed nomination would be revealed at the appropriate time -- after the final elections results have been announced by the electoral commission, said Nyan Win.
The military would also want assurances about their own candidate, and what role to expect if he was not elected president. But apart from the selection of the president -- which the army would insist in being involved in, because under the constitution he is also in charge of the army -- the military leaders would want to map out plans for the political dialogue and the nation-wide ceasefire agreement, possible constitutional reform -- including the military's virtual veto in parliament (436) on constitutional change, the future reduction of the army quota of MPs, foreign policy -- especially relations with China, India and the US -- decentralisation, involving the direct election of the regional chief ministers and their control over resources in their areas.
And of course they would want agreement on the continued modernisation and professionalisation of the military. Here Washington will play a major supporting role -- the military wants an end to the western arms embargo. Already senior US defence officials have hinted that this may be feasible if the election results are free and fair, and respected by the army.
So the army chief's comments on the morning of the election that if the NLD won the vote, they would uphold the results should be seen as reassuring for a smooth and peaceful transition when the final results are eventually announced later this week. "We are very confident that the army and government will respect the results of the elections," Nyan Win told the Bangkok Post.
Larry Jagan is a specialist on Myanmar and a former BBC World Service New Editor for the region.