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World

Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Suu Kyi votes for the first time

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi leaves after voting at a polling station at Kaw Hmu township during the general election Sunday, Nov 8, 2015, in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar voted Sunday in historic elections that will test whether popular mandate can loosen the military's longstanding grip on power, even if opposition leader Suu Kyi's party secures a widely-expected victory. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win) (The Associated Press)

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    Myanmar's National League for Democracy party leader Aung San Suu Kyi visits a polling station on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015. Myanmar voted Sunday in historic elections that will test whether popular mandate will help loosen the military’s longstanding hold on power even if opposition leader Suu Kyi’s party secures a widely-expected victory. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) (The Associated Press)

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    Leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, with flowers in back of her hair, stands at a desk of a polling official at a polling station in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015. Myanmar voted Sunday in historic elections that will test whether popular mandate will help loosen the military’s longstanding hold on power even if opposition leader Suu Kyi’s party secures a widely-expected victory. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe) (The Associated Press)

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar's pro-democracy icon voted for the first time on Sunday.

Aung San Suu Kyi smiled as she cast her ballot at a polling station near the lakeside villa that was her prison during for 15 years during the country's dictatorship.

Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy Party, confirmed it was a first for the 70-year-old Nobel Peace laureate.

She was under house arrest in 1990, when the country had its last free and credible vote. The NLD won by a landslide, but the ruling junta refused to recognize the results.

Suu Kyi's party boycotted the next elections in 2010, when generals inexplicably agreed to hand over power to a nominally civilian government. There were no by-elections in her township, Bahan, in 2012.