Story highlights
Historic vote was seen as a test of the powerful military's acceptance of democracy
Her party's win comes on the fifth anniversary of her release from house arrest
(CNN) —
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won a historic majority in Myanmar’s parliament, marking the nation’s rejection of decades of military rule.
While the results haven’t been officially certified, the win by the National League for Democracy means it will choose the country’s next President.
The announcement, made by the election commission Friday, comes on the fifth anniversary of Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest, where the 70-year-old had been for the better part of 20 years.
Sunday’s elections were the first freely held in the nation in 25 years. Suu Kyi herself was reelected to her seat in the Kawhmu constituency in Yangon.
Despite her party’s win, the leader of Myanmar’s long-fought democracy movement can’t become President.
A change in Myanmar’s constitution, drafted by the military, prevents anyone with foreign family members from becoming the nation’s leader.
Suu Kyi’s late husband was British. Her children hold British passports.
Still, she’s pushing forward.
She said last week she would be “above the President” if her party won the parliamentary election.
But complicating any efforts to change the rules in the future, the military also has an effective veto over any proposed constitutional changes.
READ: Anti-Muslim tension simmers in Myanmar
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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Aung Shine Oo/AP
A woman casts her vote in a polling station in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on Sunday, November 8.
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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Amanda Mustard/AP
A woman's finger is dipped in ink after casting her ballot in Dala, a village outside of Yangon, Myanmar, on November 8.
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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People rally outside the National League for Democracy office after Myanmar's first free and fair election in 25 years on November 8 in Yangon.
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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Amanda Mustard/AP
Votes are counted in a polling station in Yangon on November 8.
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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Khin Maung Win/AP
A vendor reads a local weekly journal showing a portrait of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Thein Sein and others.
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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Aung Shine Oo/AP
Pro-democracy supporters are optimistic that the election could be the beginning of real change in the country, which has been isolated for decades because of its repressive military-dominated government.
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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Aung Shine Oo/AP
Tin Aye, chairman of Myanmar's Union Election Commission, inspects a polling station in Naypyidaw on November 7.
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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Amanda Mustard/AP
Thu Ryain Shwe, 26, of the National Unity Party, one of the youngest candidates in the parliamentary election, wears his candidate ID in Zigon.
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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Hkun Lat/AP
A devotee prays at a chanting ceremony in Mandalay, Myanmar, on November 7 to bless citizens and to pray for a fair and peaceful election.
Photos: Landmark elections in Myanmar
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Hkun Lat/AP
A supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party holds a party flag in Mandalay on November 5.
It will take at least another week to tabulate all the results, a presidential spokesman said.
The landmark election is seen as a test of the powerful military’s willingness to let the country continue along a path toward full democracy, after decades of military-dominated rule in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Thein Sein has promised that the outcome of Sunday’s vote will be respected, but the system is already configured strongly in favor of the military, which gets to appoint a quarter of all lawmakers in the two houses of parliament.
What’s at stake in Myanmar’s elections?
The changes ushered in under Thein Sein since 2011 have helped reduce the country’s international isolation, with Western sanctions being eased and foreign investment starting to ramp up.
But human rights groups have warned of a rise in politically motivated arrests as well as discrimination directed against the Muslim minority, notably the stateless Rohingya population.
Questions have come up over how free and fair the current election will turn out to be. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, expressed concern last week about irregularities in advance voting, fraud and intimidation.
Many people still remember the last national election her party contested, in 1990, which it was widely considered to have won. But the military rulers annulled the results and placed Suu Kyi and many of her colleagues under arrest.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of an independence leader, spent much of the next two decades under house arrest, becoming an internationally recognized symbol of democracy and the country’s most popular politician.
After the outcome of the parliamentary vote is decided, lawmakers will begin the complex process of choosing a president.
Photos: Aung San Suu Kyi
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Aung San Suu Kyi poses for a portrait in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2010. A month earlier, she had been released from house arrest.
Photos: Aung San Suu Kyi
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Suu Kyi, front center, is seen with her parents and her two elder brothers in 1947. Her father, Aung San, was the commander of the Burma Independence Army and helped negotiate the country's independence from Britain. He was assassinated on July 19, 1947. Suu Kyi's mother, Ma Khin Kyi, was a diplomat who was once an ambassador to India.
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Suu Kyi poses with Burmese comedian Par Par Lay, who was part of the pro-democracy act "The Moustache Brothers." Suu Kyi grew up in Myanmar and India but moved to England in the 1960s, where she studied at Oxford University. She returned to Myanmar in 1988 and co-founded the National League for Democracy, a political party dedicated to nonviolence and civil disobedience.
Photos: Aung San Suu Kyi
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Suu Kyi sprinkles water over the heads of her followers during a traditional new year ceremony in Yangon in 1989. Five days of celebrations were marked by anti-government protests closely watched by armed troops.
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Suu Kyi poses for a photo in June 1989.
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Suu Kyi addresses a crowd of supporters in Yangon in July 1989. About two weeks later, she was placed under house arrest and charged with trying to divide the military. She denied the charges.
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While under house arrest, Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Price in 1991. She was honored "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights."
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Luis D'Orey/Reuters
Suu Kyi speaks to hundreds of supporters from the gate at her residential compound in Yangon in 1995. She had just been released from house arrest, but her political activity was restricted.
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Suu Kyi addresses supporters in 1997, on the 49th anniversary of Myanmar's independence movement.
