New dawn for democracy in Burma

Aung San Suu Kyi is likely to be elected to Burma's parliament in this Sunday's by-election, according to a leading Southeast Asia expert from The Australian National University. Nicholas Farrelly, a Research Fellow in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, says that the election of Aung San Suu Kyi will reinforce moves towards democracy in Burma and lead to changes in the ways that Western democracies engage with the country. "I think that it is almost guaranteed that Aung San Suu Kyi will be elected to Burma's parliament in this upcoming by-election. Her National League for Democracy has positioned itself very well and it's now likely to take a fair number of the seats which are up for grabs," he said. "This will have profound implications for Burma's democracy and, for the very first time, Aung San Suu Kyi will be an active and official parliamentary player. She's waited for more than two decades for this sort of opportunity. "Once Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues in her democratic party are in the country's parliament there is ever more of a chance that Burma will continue to move in democratic directions.