Suu Kyi meets Myanmar’s outgoing president

Aung San Suu Kyi

In this Nov. 5, 2015 photo, Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi leaves a news conference at her home in Yangon, Myanmar. The United States is troubled by religious discrimination and the Myanmar military’s grip on politics as the nation heads into landmark Nov. 8 elections that are an acid test of its democratic reforms. But for the Obama administration, the question is no longer whether to engage the former pariah state. It’s about how deep the relationship should be. AP FILE PHOTO

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — Aung San Suu Kyi is holding closed-door talks with Myanmar’s outgoing president following her party’s landslide election win. The two were expected to discuss the transfer of power.

The Southeast Asian nation started moving from a half-century of dictatorship toward democracy in 2011, when military rulers inexplicably agreed to hand over power to a nominally civilian government headed by President Thein Sein, a general turned reformist.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy easily won the Nov. 8 vote, securing enough seats in parliament to form a government.

Though the 2008 military-drafted constitution bars her from the presidency, Suu Kyi has vowed to rule by proxy.

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