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Burma / Myanmar: National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi addressing supporters at Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Yangon,17 November 2011. Photograph by Htoo Tay Zar (CC BY-SA 3.0 License)

Aung San Suu Kyi (born June 19 1945) is a Burmese opposition politician and General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, Suu Kyi was elected Prime Minister as leader of the winning National League for Democracy party, which won 59% of the vote and 394 of 492 seats. She had, however, already been detained under house arrest before the elections.

She remained under house arrest in Myanmar for almost 15 years until 2010. Suu Kyi was the recipient of the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992 she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding by the Government of India.

The 2012 Burmese by-elections were held on 1 April 2012. The elections were held to fill 45 vacant parliamentary seats.

The main opposition party National League for Democracy was re-registered for the by-elections on 13 December 2011 as part of the reforms in Burma since 2010. NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi ran in the seat of Kawhmu, which she won and her party won in 43 of the 44 seats they contested (out of 45).