Myanmar's new parliament is starting its first session on Monday, with lawmakers setting off the process to install the first democratically elected government in the country in more than 50 years.
The new assembly is overwhelmingly dominated by lawmakers from the National League for Democracy (NLD) party led by democracy champion and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The NLD won about 80 percent of the elected seats in election in November, but under the constitution it will have to share power with the military junta. The constitution also proscribes Suu Kyi from becoming the president as her sons hold British citizenship.
However, the transition from military-only rule, which was put in place after the coup in 1962, is remarkable for the country.
Although 25 percent of the seats in the parliament are reserved for the military, the NLD will be able to form the government. A government led by the NLD will come to power only in April, after current president Thein Sein steps down at the end of March.
Suu Kyi hasn't revealed who will the new president, but had said she will be "above the president", and will have direct control of the government.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero General Aung San, spent 15 years in hose arrest after her party won a majority in parliamentary elections in 1990.
The first task of the new parliament is to elect the president, as well as choose a new chairman and speakers f the house.
For Suu Kyi, the toughest part of the glorious struggle for democracy will be to meet the sky-high expectations of the southeast Asian country's 51.5 million people.
"They (people) hope that every problem will be solved automatically after the NLD becomes the government, FDI will come in," a leader close to the 7-year-old leader said, according to Reuters.
