The question over Myanmar's first free election in decades no longer appears to be whether Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party will win, but whether it will secure the landslide needed to govern the country and enact promised changes.
Due to handicaps built into the constitution — a parting gift from the generals who ruled Myanmar for half a century — Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy will need to secure two-thirds of the seats up for election if it wants to select the next president by itself. A Suu Kyi-led government would also face the triple challenge of sky-high expectations at home, skepticism abroad about its capability to run an economy that is still emerging from decades of neglect, and a military that retains significant political power.
"Even if a NLD landslide victory materializes, the party will need to weigh her supporters' expectations for rapid change against the risk of stretching the patience of the military and other political and business entrenched interests," said Giulia Zino, a senior analyst for Southeast Asia at Control Risks in Singapore.