Aung San Suu Kyi leads party into Myanmar parliament to claim power.

Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at the opening of the new parliament in Naypyitaw as hundreds of MPs from her NLD will form Myanmar’s ruling party. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

After half a century of military-dominated rule, Aung San Suu Kyi has led her National League for Democracy (NLD) party into Myanmar’s parliament, taking a majority of seats and starting the process of installing a democratically elected government.

Suu Kyi has waited more than 25 years for this moment, having won a parliamentary majority in 1990 that was annulled by the military leadership. In November last year, she led the NLD to another landslide victory that has been accepted by the outgoing army-aligned government.

Hundreds of NLD parliamentarians, many of them former political prisoners during successive military regimes, took their seats in the lower house on Monday morning. The party won 80% of all electable positions during a general election in November, with the military reserving a quarter of total seats.

The Nobel peace prize laureate, flowers in her hair, avoided hordes of reporters in the capital Nay Pyi Taw when she used a side entrance to enter the parliament. Her NLD lawmakers wore orange, overshadowing the military’s light green in the house.

Suu Kyi did not comment as she entered parliament.

U Min Oo, an NLD MP from Bago constituency, said the day felt very special.

“It’s the second time I have been elected but this time it feels different, because the NLD is majority. It’s an overwhelming majority, but we all come from different backgrounds and we can guarantee diversity.”

Win Myint, a close aide to Suu Kyi and NLD MP, was sworn in as house speaker. But T Khun Myat, member of the outgoing government USDP party, was also elected as deputy speaker in a sign of the political pragmatism the NLD leader has adopted in recent years.

Since the election, Aung San Suu Kyi has swiftly reached out to her former foes, including Than Shwe, the former leader of the junta that had ruled the country for 49 years until it gave way to semi-civilian government in 2011.

Analysts focused their attention on one rare attendee of the meeting, Tin Myo Win, Aung San Suu Kyi’s long-time personal physician.

He typically does not attend senior-level NLD meetings, but has for months been the subject of speculation about whether he would be the party’s presidential candidate due to his closeness to the leader.

The doctor is an NLD loyalist and former political prisoner. He was one of the few people allowed to visit Aung San Suu Kyi when she was under house arrest.

This lady is really strong. I admire her guts a whole lot!

source: the guardian/twitter