Suu Kyi's day of destiny arrives
Myanmar voters cast their ballots yesterday in a historic election that could thrust Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party into power and finally pull the country away from the grip of the military.
In a reminder of Suu Kyi’s star power, the opposition leader, wearing a traditional skirt with her trademark string of flowers in her hair, was mobbed by scores of reporters as she voted in Yangon.
Supporters crushed into the school yard acting as a polling station, shouting “Victory! Victory!” as the diminutive democracy heroine edged through the crowd.
Her National League for Democracy party believes a fair vote will power it into government after a decades-long struggle against army dictatorship.
In the capital Nay Pyi Taw, President Thein Sein, a one-time top-ranking junta general, smiled for the cameras and held up his little finger, stained with purple ink, after voting.
His ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), an army-backed behemoth stacked with former military cadres, is the main obstacle to an NLD victory.
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