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imageYANGON: Myanmar goes to the polls Sunday in an historic election that could thrust Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party into power and pull the country away from the grip of the military.

The Southeast Asian nation was ruled for five decades by a brutal junta that smothered opponents with violence, jail and political sleight of hand.

But in 2011 the junta suddenly handed power to a semi-civilian government led by former generals.

Sweeping reforms since have loosened the straitjacketed economy and brought many freedoms to an isolated, wearied people -- including the release of most political prisoners.

Polls open at 6:00am (2330 GMT Saturday) and close in the late afternoon with official results expected to start trickling out by early Monday.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party believes a fair vote will power it into government.

It is the first election the party has contested since 1990, when the NLD claimed a landslide only to see the army ignore the result and condemn Suu Kyi to spend most of the next 20 years under house arrest.

Suu Kyi -- affectionately known as "Mother Suu" -- towers over the country's democracy movement, acting as a galvanising force for the NLD.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015

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