It has been a long road for the Burmese. As the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) received news of its landslide victory in national elections, thousands gathered outside the party’s headquarters in Rangoon. It has been a long road in particular for the party’s 88-year-old chairman, the retired army general Tin Oo, whose face hung on banners over NLD supporters gathered on consecutive nights to celebrate as the results roll in.
The NLD is best known for its association with “The Lady” – as Suu Kyi is known – and yet the election she has dominated will not lead to her elevation to the role of president, because of a law that appears designed to keep her out. The president of Burma cannot have a foreign spouse, as she did (the Oxford scholar Michael Aris), though days before the election, Suu Kyi told a press conference that she would be “above the president”, leading to speculation that a proxy would represent her in the job.
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