Opposition’s Leader Stifled in Myanmar : Southeast Asia: The end of military rule may hinge on the status of the daughter of an independence hero.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader whose party is claiming a landslide election victory, remained under house arrest Tuesday despite being the pivotal figure in a pending delicate transfer of power between army and civilian governments.

As votes from Sunday’s election were counted, many said they see the 44-year-old academic as their only hope for a change of leadership free of bloodletting and revenge in Myanmar, formerly Burma.

“Without Aung San Suu Kyi, we cannot carry the people,” said Khin Maung Swe, committee member of the National League for Democracy. “She is a symbol of our fight for democracy.”

The elections were the climax of 20 months of army rule, imposed after troops gunned down hundreds of demonstrators to end nationwide demands for political freedom.

The government-approved National Unity Party has so far won only a fraction of the vote. Until all the votes are counted, a process the army has said may take up to three weeks--or one side makes a move--Myanmar remains in limbo between army rule and parliamentary democracy.

The army, which officials said had been caught off guard by the landslide, has promised to hand power to a government formed after a new constitution is adopted.

Acting league president Kyi Maung said Tuesday that his party would refine Myanmar’s 1947 constitution within two months after Parliament convenes.

He said his party--which says it already has a majority in Parliament--will meet Thursday to work out how to set up a government.

“At the moment we can’t talk about the future. We will sit down together and come up with a nice list of priorities,” he said.

But few expect much to happen until the dynamic, British-educated Aung San Suu Kyi and party chairman Tin Oo, both detained last July after making fiery anti-government speeches, are released.

Despite her arrest, the slender daughter of assassinated independence hero Aung San dominated the elections and is seen as the main reason for the league’s overwhelming victory.

“The army has to release them. They just need a face-saving way out,” said one official.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s home, by Yangon’s Inya Lake, is still guarded by a battalion of soldiers who politely but firmly turn away visitors.

On the other side of the lake is the house of Gen. Ne Win, until 1988 the leader of Burma and still believed to be the power behind the military government.