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Suu Kyi slams ‘unjust’ Myanmar vote

Detained opposition leader says she is against her party contesting upcoming polls.

Aung San Suu Kyi
International powers have criticised Myanmar for barring Aung San Suu Kyi from the election [AFP]
Published On 24 Mar 2010

Although Aung San Suu Kyi has been under detention for many years, she is still general-secretary of the party and its most dominant figure.

The NLD won the last elections held in Myanmar in 1990 but was barred by the military government from taking power.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s comments came hours after Myanmar’s highest court refused to accept a lawsuit filed by the NLD that sought to challenge the new election laws.

NLD lawyers had tried to get a court order to revoke laws that bar thousands of opposition figures, including Aung San Suu Kyi herself, from participating in the poll.

UN meeting

Myanmar election laws

Myanmar’s military government has announced new laws governing national election expected later this year. The following are key points of the laws announced so far:

undefined Anyone convicted by courts is barred from standing as a candidate or voting.

undefined Parties must expel any many member convicted and serving time in jail or in detention.

undefined Political parties wanting to contest poll must re-register with election commission within 60 days.

undefined Anyone disrupting voting can be jailed for up to one year.

undefined Results of previous 1990 election, won by the NLD, are annulled.

On Thursday Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general has called a meeting of key nations in New York to discuss the Myanmar’s new electoral laws and the international response.

Martin Nesirky, a UN spokesman, told reporters that Ban believes it is an appropriate time for another meeting of the so-called Group of Friends of Myanmar.

The group brings together representatives from about 15 countries – Myanmar’s neighbours, other Asian and European nations interested in the country, and the five permanent UN Security Council members, the US Russia, China, Britain and France.

Despite international concerns, Myanmar’s ruling generals appear determined to push ahead with the election, considered by the government as the final step in a drawn out plan it has dubbed a “roadmap to democracy”.

The vote will be the first held in Myanmar since 1990, when the NLD won a landslide victory.

The government rejected the victory results and has kept Aung San Suu Kyi jailed or under detention for 14 of the past 20 years.

Source: News Agencies