YANGON: The fairy-tale has come true for Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's most famous political prisoner, as her National League of Democracy party appeared headed for a landslide victory in the nation's historic elections.
So after a 25 year fearless struggle, the 70-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has emerged triumphant against her country's despotic military rulers.
Her supporters were dancing in the rain across the country also known as Burma on Monday, as her party decimated the ruling military-backed party in a way that few predicted.
For the first time in days the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero Aung San smiled as she emerged late on Monday from her party's headquarters to make her first public speech since polls had closed on Sunday.
There was no need to claim victory, not just now anyway.
"I think you all know the results," she said.
A crowd that had packed the street hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman they adoringly call "Mother Suu" went wild, cheering and waving flags.
Similar scenes were reported in her strongholds across the country.
As officials began counting millions of votes on Monday word reached the NLD's ramshackle headquarters in Yangon, the country's main city, that several key generals who had denigrated and humiliated over many years had themselves been thrown out of parliament.
When Ms Suu Kyi's party won the 1990 elections in a landslide, the generals refused to accept the result and implemented a brutal crackdown that kept her under house arrest for 15 out of 21 years.
Her only link to the outside world was crackling short-wave radio she used to listen to the BBC.
When her husband, the British academic Michael Aris, was dying, they blocked her seeing him.
Ms Suu Kyi has urged her supporters to remain calm and not provoke their rivals during potentially volatile post-poll horse-trading during which she will negotiate the shape of her country's next government that will probably be a coalition that includes ethnic and smaller parties.
But analysts also warn that Myanmar faces dangerous times ahead.
The still powerful military has promised to honour the election results and said it would not block Ms Suu Kyi's party taking power if it could secure a parliamentary majority.
But analysts say it will be critical for the country's future for Ms Suu Kyi to work with the military, which under the constitution controls key security ministries and maintains a grip on the economy through vast business conglomerates.
On the eve of the election Ms Suu Kyi antagonised the generals when she declared she would run the country "above" a president if she wins, a plan that appears to contravene the constitution which states that no-one is above the president.
She is barred from taking the role herself because of a clause in the constitution stating that a person cannot assume the post if they have a foreign spouse or child. Ms Suu Kyi's late husband and two children are British.
The country's incumbent Union Solidarity and Development Party has declared its officials would not obey Ms Suu Kyi if she runs the government above a president, escalating tensions ahead of potentially volatile post-poll negotiations.
Nicholas Farrelly, director of the Myanmar Research Centre at the Australian National University, said there now needs to be compromise and meaningful accommodations from all sides in Myanmar.
"The alternative, as Myanmar history shows, is more war, strife and trauma," Dr Farrelly said.
Preliminary official results of the poll are expected to be released on Tuesday.
Parliament is due to sit again in early February.
So after a 25 year fearless struggle, the 70-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has emerged triumphant against her country's despotic military rulers.
Her supporters were dancing in the rain across the country also known as Burma on Monday, as her party decimated the ruling military-backed party in a way that few predicted.
For the first time in days the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero Aung San smiled as she emerged late on Monday from her party's headquarters to make her first public speech since polls had closed on Sunday.
There was no need to claim victory, not just now anyway.
"I think you all know the results," she said.
A crowd that had packed the street hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman they adoringly call "Mother Suu" went wild, cheering and waving flags.
Similar scenes were reported in her strongholds across the country.
As officials began counting millions of votes on Monday word reached the NLD's ramshackle headquarters in Yangon, the country's main city, that several key generals who had denigrated and humiliated over many years had themselves been thrown out of parliament.
When Ms Suu Kyi's party won the 1990 elections in a landslide, the generals refused to accept the result and implemented a brutal crackdown that kept her under house arrest for 15 out of 21 years.
Her only link to the outside world was crackling short-wave radio she used to listen to the BBC.
When her husband, the British academic Michael Aris, was dying, they blocked her seeing him.
Ms Suu Kyi has urged her supporters to remain calm and not provoke their rivals during potentially volatile post-poll horse-trading during which she will negotiate the shape of her country's next government that will probably be a coalition that includes ethnic and smaller parties.
But analysts also warn that Myanmar faces dangerous times ahead.
The still powerful military has promised to honour the election results and said it would not block Ms Suu Kyi's party taking power if it could secure a parliamentary majority.
But analysts say it will be critical for the country's future for Ms Suu Kyi to work with the military, which under the constitution controls key security ministries and maintains a grip on the economy through vast business conglomerates.
On the eve of the election Ms Suu Kyi antagonised the generals when she declared she would run the country "above" a president if she wins, a plan that appears to contravene the constitution which states that no-one is above the president.
She is barred from taking the role herself because of a clause in the constitution stating that a person cannot assume the post if they have a foreign spouse or child. Ms Suu Kyi's late husband and two children are British.
The country's incumbent Union Solidarity and Development Party has declared its officials would not obey Ms Suu Kyi if she runs the government above a president, escalating tensions ahead of potentially volatile post-poll negotiations.
Nicholas Farrelly, director of the Myanmar Research Centre at the Australian National University, said there now needs to be compromise and meaningful accommodations from all sides in Myanmar.
"The alternative, as Myanmar history shows, is more war, strife and trauma," Dr Farrelly said.
Preliminary official results of the poll are expected to be released on Tuesday.
Parliament is due to sit again in early February.
