Kawhmu, Myanmar - Crowds of thousands lined the streets cheering and tooting horns as Myanmar Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi hit the campaign trail for the first time on Saturday in a bid to become a lawmaker in the country's parliament.

   Riding in a convoy of three dozen cars and flanked by hundreds of motorcycles, the leader of Myanmar's long struggle against military dictatorship waved and smiled as crowds chanted "long live mother Suu" en-route to the constituency where she will contest April by-elections.

   "I'm very encouraged to see so many more people than I expected, showing us the support and warm welcome," Suu Kyi, 66, shouted from a car sunroof on her arrival in Kawhmu township, about 30 km (20 miles) outside the commercial capital, Yangon.

   "We need your strength, for the people," she said to the crowd, much of which held aloft her pictures alongside that of her late father and independence hero, Aung San.

   The decision to contest the by-election represents a giant leap of faith for Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party after two decades being harassed and sidelined by the former military junta, which made way to a nominally civilian government 11 months ago.

   The NLD boycotted the widely flawed 2010 election but last year accepted an olive branch from the government after President Thein Sein, the former junta's fourth-in-command, reached out to Suu Kyi, who regards the reform-minded ex-general as sincere and
trustworthy.