Voting began on Sunday in Myanmar elections seen as a test of the government’s budding reforms, with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi standing for a seat in parliament for the first time.
A victory for Suu Kyi would cap a remarkable transformation for the 66-year-old icon of the pro-democracy movement, who spent most of the past 22 years locked up by the generals who ruled the country for decades.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept to a landslide election victory in 1990 but the junta never recognised the result.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, was not a candidate herself on that occasion because she was under house arrest.
Her party is contesting 44 of the 45 seats at stake in Sunday’s vote – not enough to threaten the ruling party’s majority, but a seat in parliament would give the opposition leader a chance to shape legislation for the first time.
Polling stations opened at 6:00 am (2330 GMT Saturday) and were due to close at 4:00 pm, with more than six million people eligible to vote. The results are expected within about one week, according to election officials.
IBT, By Eric Linton, April 1
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in parliament Sunday, her party said, in a historic by-election that is testing Myanmar’s reform credentials and could convince the West to end sanctions.
Her National League for Democracy announced to loud cheers at its headquarters that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate had won in Kawhmu, south of the commercial capital Yangon, paving the way for her first role in government after two decades of struggle against dictatorship, Reuters reported.
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has won,” an NLD official announced, referring to Suu Kyi by her honorific title. Myanmar’s Election Commission had yet to confirm any results from the by-elections for 45 legislative seats.
Hundreds of people cheered and shouted when a large screen outside the NLD offices announced a victory estimated unofficially at 82 percent of the vote for the pro-democracy icon, the Los Angeles Times reported. The party also claimed at least 10 other seats among the 45 at stake.