■Life in captivity
She has remained a devoted Buddhist who from the beginning admired the principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience espoused by India's Mahatma Gandhi, according to Nyo Ohn Myint, a professor who serves as one of the leaders in the NLD.
Suu Kyi tried to break the monotony of her life under house arrest by playing her piano, another passion in her life, according to the independent Irrawaddy magazine.
In 2007, people defiantly took to the streets to protest rising fuel costs, and the regime answered with a brutal crackdown. Suu Kyi's detention was extended again and again, and she appeared gaunt and unhappy.
In 2010, Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, part of a transition to a civilian system of government in Myanmar.
Her party was allowed to compete in by-elections in 2012 and won dozens of seats in the parliament, including one for Suu Kyi herself.
■Why Suu Kyi can't be president
But even if the NLD wins the election, Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by the military-drafted constitution, which prohibits anyone with foreign family members from assuming the top office.
Suu Kyi's late husband -- who died in England in 1999 while she was under house arrest -- was British, and her two sons have British passports.
The constitution also says that the parliament -- which includes members of the upper and lower houses together with unelected military officials -- must choose the next president.
■Suu Kyi's 'simple message'
But Suu Kyi has remained, as always, defiant in the face of long odds.
"If we win and the NLD forms a government I will be above the president. It's a very simple message," she told a news conference in Yangon in early November.
Some have said that Suu Kyi's stubborn defiance over the years became an obstacle to progress in Myanmar. But her followers remain ardent in their admiration. She has clung to her dream of democracy, peace and freedom for Myanmar's 50 million impoverished people, they say.
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