Daughter of Aung San, she became the co‐founder and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the country’s main opposition party, in 1988. Although she was placed under house arrest in 1989 and not allowed to stand as a candidate, the NLD won 80% of the seats in the democratic elections of 1990; the ruling military government refused to recognize the NLD’s victory. A supporter of political reform through non‐violent public protest and democratic processes, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She was released from house arrest in 1995, rearrested in 2000, released in 2002, and again rearrested in 2003. Finally released in 2010, she was elected an NLD member of parliament in 2012. She led the NLD to a landslide victory in the November 2015 elections, with the party gaining an overall majority in parliament. In April 2016, she was appointed to a new position as State Counsellor, with similar powers to a prime minister. Htin Kyaw (a close ally of Aung San Suu Kyi) was elected president.