Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi fell ill yesterday as she addressed the largest crowd of her election campaign so far in the second biggest city of Mandalay.

I came to Mandalay to ask for help- Suu Kyi

More than 100,000 people gathered to cheer on the tired-looking Nobel Peace Prize laureate as she delivered a speech on the outskirts of the city, but she was forced to take a break, saying she did not feel well.

NLD sources said the 66-year-old, who is travelling with two personal doctors, had then vomited several times, but she returned to the stage about 10 minutes later to continue her address.

“She is feeling better now,” her doctor Tin Myo Win later told AFP, saying Suu Kyi had recently been suffering from a cold.

The international icon has had a punishing schedule ahead of by-elections on April 1, campaigning in various parts of the country and meeting a stream of foreign dignitaries in her hometown of Yangon.

Her decision to run for a seat in a constituency near Yangon is the clearest sign yet of the surprising change taking place in Myanmar since an army-backed government replaced decades of outright military rule last year.

“I came to Mandalay to ask for help,” she told the crowds, asking the people to vote for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the by-elections, which will see her stand for parliament for the first time.

“I haven’t seen such a big audience since 1988,” she said, referring to the year she swept to prominence as Myanmar’s leading pro-democracy campaigner, before being put under house arrest by the junta.

“We have overcome many difficulties by resisting, with the people’s support, for more than 20 years. We will continue like this. Please believe in us.”