Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party won majority in parliament in Myanmar

The laureate's late husband was a British national, as are their two sons.

Aung San Suu Kyi AC is a Burmese opposition politician and chairman of the National League for Democracy in Burma.

Election results released Friday morning showed Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy had won 348 parliamentary seats, more than the 329 required to control both houses of the legislature, with about 20 percent of seats still to be determined.

Key to the challenges facing the NLD, he says, is its relationship with the still powerful army, which retains control over pivotal security ministries and a quarter of parliamentary seats.

Suu Kyi is barred from becoming president by the junta-drafted constitution because her children are foreign nationals.

Smaller ethnic parties, who had expected to play a role in choosing the new president, have collectively won only 45 seats, according to partial results announced November 13. Suu Kyi was arrested and forced her to stay in her house and not have any visitors.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon congratulated Suu Kyi for her election win, but also hailed the "courage and vision" of Thein Sein for "leadership in the reform process".

On Friday just after midday, figures disclosed by the Union Election Commission (UEC) confirmed that the NLD had finally surpassed that 329 mark.

"Even with this election, 25% of the seats in the parliament are reserved for the military", said Rhodes.

The victory completes her transformation from an icon of democratic struggle against a military regime that branded her a traitor to a political leader who now has responsibility for governing this Southeast Asian nation of 51 million people, which is trying to catch up from lost decades of underdevelopment and isolation.

But the victory is a sweet second chance for the party, which also won a landslide victory in the first election it contested in 1990, only to see the results annulled by the military, and many of its leading members harassed and jailed.

In a phone call, Obama commended Suu Kyi for "her tireless efforts and sacrifice over so many years" to promote a peaceful, democratic Burma, the White House said.

There had been an expectation that the NLD would win, but there had been no expectation that it would do so by such a margin.

Long a political favourite of Western leaders, Suu Kyi has received telephone calls of congratulations from the UK's David Cameron, Barack Obama of the U.S., and French President Francois Hollande, the NLD said.

"This is in many ways a momentous opportunity for the people of Burma", Rhodes said.

China on Thursday avoided congratulating Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi for her party's landslide election victory which has the potential to strain ties with Beijing.

Thein Sein's presidential spokesman and Information Minister Ye Htut said on his Facebook page of Obama: "He said America would continue cooperating with the Myanmar government".