Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is formally candidate to run for a parliamentary seat in an upcoming by-election.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner registered her candidacy Wednesday to represent a district just outside the main city of Rangoon. She and her

National League for Democracy party will contest the 48 parliamentary seats that are open in the April 1 vote.

Aung San Suu Kyi's decision to run for parliament is the latest evidence of democratic reforms since a new, nominally civilian government took power from a decades-long military junta last March, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

But even if the NLD wins all 48 seats in the by-election, it will not be enough to blunt the majority of the military-backed ruling party.

The National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in 1990, while Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest, but Burma's then-military rulers barred it from taking power.

The party boycotted the 2010 elections, claiming the rules were unfair.