Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling party secured an absolute majority in Myanmar's election, official results showed Friday, in a poll disputed by the military-aligned opposition and criticised by rights groups.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) had already declared a landslide victory based on its own tallies, prompting street celebrations by supporters.

But official figures were still being returned five days after the ballot, only the second such polls since the nation emerged from outright military rule in 2011.

Results announced by the election commission Friday showed the NLD had won 346 seats —- more than 50 percent of parliament, even taking into account the quarter of seats reserved for the military under the constitution.

The party is on track to improve on its landslide win in 2015, despite widespread disillusion in many ethnic-minority areas.

"People clearly realised the need for the NLD to get enough votes to form a government on their own," NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt told AFP, adding this would help "minimise political conflict".

The military-aligned opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has been trounced across the country, winning just 25 seats by Friday.

The party alleges the vote was neither free nor fair and is demanding that the Union Election Commission (UEC) step down and polls be re-run.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already tweeted his congratulations to Suu Kyi, writing he looked forward to strengthening the neighbours' "traditional bonds of friendship".

Observers have widely concluded that voting took place smoothly on the day, despite forecasts of a low turnout due to a recent surge of coronavirus cases.

But they condemned what they described as the election commission's lack of transparency and its cancellation of the polls across many ethnic minority areas -- ostensibly for security reasons.

© AFP