Myanmar is ruling party con ceded defeat in a general election yesterday as the opposition led by democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on course for a landslide victory that could ensure it forms the next government. "We lost," Union Solidarity and Development Party(USDP) acting chairman Htay Oo said a day after the Southeast Asian country's first free nationwide election in a quarter of a century. By late yesterday afternoon, vendors outside the headquarters of the National League for Democracy(NLD) in Yangon were selling red T-shirts with Ms Suu Kyi's face and the words"We won'. The election commission later began announcing constituency-by-constituency results from Sunday's poll. All of the first 12 parliamentary seats announced were won by Ms Suu Kyi's party The keenly watched vote was Myanmar's first general election since its long-ruling military ceded power to President Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government in 2011, ushering in a period of reform and opening up to foreign investment. The NLD said its own tally of results posted at polling stations around the coun- try showed it was on track to win more than 70% of the seats being contested in par- liament, above the two-thirds threshold it needs to form Myanmar's first demo cratically elected government since the early 1960s. "They must accept the results, even though they don't want to, NLD spokesman Win Htein said, adding that in the highly populated central region the Nobel peace laureate's party looked set to win more than 90% of seats. Earlier, a smiling Ms Suu Kyi appeared on the balcony of the NLD's headquarters and in a brief address urged supporters to be patient and wait for the official results. Traffic squeezed at a walking pace through a fast-gathering crowd outside the NLD office after the first results were announced. They listened to songs and watched a Suu Kyi video on a big screen hung from the building, although many huddled under umbrellas as torrential rain dampened the mood The election was a landmark in the country's unsteady journey to democracy from the military dictatorship that made the forimer Burma a pariah state for so long. It is also a moment that Ms Suu Kyi will relish after spending years under house rs arrest following the country's 1990 eletion, when the NLD won a landslide victory on that was ignored by the junta. Stability was the top priority for post- election Myanmar, warned activists and businesses, as concerns loom large on how and even if the expected winner NLD and the ruling USDP would strike a peaceful deal for the next leadership A senior businessman working with a Western firm in Yangon, who declined to be named, said: "Even if Aung San Suu Kyi can run the country, not as the president of course, she still needs military cooperation to govern local administration and expedite state apparatus. Ko Ko Gyi, 88 Generation political group leader, noted the first priority for the country was to unite the nation. "The election is a peaceful way to have a transition and I hope the results will be gained free and fair and participants must respect and implement the results, said the former political prisoner, who was freed four years ago. He hoped that negotiations on the presidential position, although a delicate matter, would be held in private between the USDP and the NLD before being pub licly announced. "It should be real talks, a reconciliatory gesture, not causing more disputes like the process after 2012," said Ko Ko Gyi.