This woman spent her life fighting for democracy in Myanmar — now she's its leader by Allan Smith and Carl Mueller on Nov 11, 2015, 1:13 PM Aung San Suu Kyi spent most of her life fighting to get Myanmar democracy — she even spent 15 years under house arrest. Now she's the nation's leader. Suu Kyi is the head of the National League for Democracy, and her party took the vast majority of seats in Myanmar's election on Sunday, the first national vote in 25 years, and after 50 years of military dominance. While Suu Kyi won the last election too, in 1990, the government didn't respect the results and put her under house arrest. During this time, she continued to fight for free elections in the country, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for human rights in 1991. Now, a quarter of a century later, she's poised to lead the nation she worked so hard to advance. But there's a catch. The military-drafted Constitution doesn't allow for anyone who has children that are foreign nationals to become president. It's almost directly aimed at Suu Kyi, whose children are also British citizens. Regardless, she said that she will be in control, even if she has to have someone else stand in as president. "I make all the decisions because I'm the leader of the winning party," she said. "We cannot be an authoritarian government for the simple reason, because our strength is the people, it's the public. We have been able to survive as long as we have because we have the support of the people." Story by Allan Smith and editing by Carl Mueller
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