Kawhmu (Myanmar), Apr 1 (AFP): Voters in Myanmar flocked to the polls today for elections expected to sweep opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament for the first time as part of dramatic political reforms.

A victory for Suu Kyi would cap a remarkable transformation for the 66-year-old icon of the pro-democracy movement, who spent most of the past 22 years locked up by the junta as a prisoner in her own home.

A crowd of supporters and journalists mobbed Suu Kyi as she visited a polling station in the rural constituency of Kawhmu where she is standing in the by-elections, as voters queued outside, some in traditional dress.

"I'll vote for Mother Suu because I love and cherish her," said 43-year-old labourer San San Win.

"We don't expect anything from her. We're really glad she came to our village," she added.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept to a landslide election victory in 1990 but the generals who ruled the country for decades until last year never recognised the result.

The NLD leader, who won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, was not a candidate herself on that occasion because she was under house arrest.

Her party is contesting 44 of the 45 seats at stake in today's vote -- not enough to threaten the ruling party's majority, but a seat in parliament would give the opposition leader a chance to shape legislation for the first time.

Observers say the new quasi-civilian government wants the pro-democracy leader to win a place in parliament this time to burnish its reform credentials and smooth the way for an easing of Western sanctions.