San Suu Kyi finally takes the power as the head of Myanmar Government nearly after 26 years.
The Nobel Peace Laureate and the leader of National League for Democracy (NLD) met success with a substantial parliamentary majority in the parliamentary elections in 1990 — a result that was subsequently nullified — and two months after the NLD’s landslide victory in the 2015 vote.
About San Suu Kyi:
- She became an international face of the fight for democracy.
- In the year 2012, U.N Secretary Ban ki Moon called her a ‘global symbol’ of progress.
- She was under house arrest and spent much time between each of her election victories as a guarded prisoner in her own home in Yangon.
- Her release came after the election of President Thein Sein in March 2011.
Suu Kyi said before the vote that if the NLD won she would be “above the president.”
U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Suu Kyi on the NLD’s electoral success, noting that formation of a new government “could be an important step forward in the nation’s democratic transition,” the White House said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described the 2015 elections as “an important step forward” but also cautioned that what happens next is key to Myanmar’s future.
According to the President’s website, the former President Thein Sein pledged that members of the old government would “cooperate with the next government to bring peace and development to the country.”
Source: WVTM 13
