Sunday, April 1, 2012

Dissident Suu Kyi Elected to Burmese Parliament

A Political Prisoner, A Nobel Peace Laureate, And Now An MP

Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in parliament today after a historic by-election that is testing the country’s promising political reforms.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party announced to loud cheers at its headquarters that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate had won in Kawhmu, southwest of Yangon, raising the prospect of her first role in government after a two-decade struggle against dictatorship [Reuters, 1 April].

UPDATE: NLD is reporting that it has won nearly 90 percent of the 45 seats contested in the bi-election.

UPDATE (2 April): The government-run press report that NLD has won at least 40 seats out of the 45 contested.

Photo: Reuters

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

now lets hope that our reform-movement will also return to the political scene soon; i think they are missed rather badly; they bring a civil and civilized language back to the political space and that is what we need; but at the end of the day that is not enough; what we ultimately need is 3 or 4 privatized TV-channels inside Iran; that would help to change the political culture in Iran

Anonymous said...

This regime isn't for "reforming".
Get it out of your heads once and for all.
We need REAL change and that means the overthrow of a barbaric theocracy in its entirety.