(1 Apr 2012) 1. Various of National League for Democracy (NLD) supporters outside NLD headquarters celebrating unofficial results showing by-election wins for their candidates - including opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi
STORYLINE:
Supporters of Myanmar's opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi erupted in euphoric cheers on Sunday after her party said she won a parliamentary seat in a landmark election - setting the stage for her to take public office for the first time.
The victory - if confirmed - would mark a major milestone in the Southeast Asian nation, where the military has ruled almost exclusively for a half-century and where a new reform-minded government is seeking legitimacy and a lifting of Western sanctions.
It would also mark the biggest prize of Suu Kyi's political career, and a spectacular reversal of fortune for the 66-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate who the former junta had kept imprisoned in her lakeside home for the better part of two decades.
The victory claim was displayed on a digital signboard above the opposition National League for Democracy's headquarters in Myanmar's main city, Yangon, where more than a thousand supporters began wildly shouting upon learning the news.
"We won! We won!" her supporters chanted while clapping, dancing, waving red party flags and gesturing with thumbs-up and V-for-victory signs.
Earlier, the party had claimed that Suu Kyi was ahead with 65 percent of the vote in 82 of her constituency's 129 polling stations.
The party had staff and volunteers spread throughout the vast rice-farming district, who were calling in preliminary results by phone to their headquarters in Yangon.
The results must be confirmed by the official electoral commission, however, which has yet to release any outcome and may not make an official declaration for days.
Sunday's by-election was called to fill just 45 vacant seats in Myanmar's 664-seat national Parliament and will not change the balance of power in a new government that is nominally civilian but still heavily controlled by retired generals.
Suu Kyi and other opposition candidates would have almost no say even if they win all the seats they are contesting.
But her candidacy has resurrected hope among Myanmar's downtrodden masses, who have grown up for generations under strict military rule.
If Suu Kyi takes office as expected, it would symbolise a giant leap towards national reconciliation.
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