Suu Kyi to Run in Burmese By-Election

By-election victories could give the National League of Democracy a strong foothold in the military-ruled Burmese parliament.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the Burmese opposition, a longtime political prisoner, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, has announced that she will run for a seat in parliament in an upcoming by-election. Suu Kyi has led the National League for Democracy since its creation in 1988, but has spent the bulk of that time behind bars at the behest of Burma's ruling military junta. But with the junta slowly ceding control to civilians over the past year, hundreds of political prisoners have been released. Now, Suu Kyi has said that she and 47 other NLD members will be running in a by-election on April 1, with Suu Kyi aiming to land a seat in the suburbs of Rangoon, Burma's capital. Even if the NLD wins every seat in the election, though, it will still be far short of a majority government. But it will mean that the country's leading voice for reform will have a platform from which to speak as Burma cautiously tip-toes into the 21st century.