Suu Kyi to be barred from party, polls
Thursday, 11 March 2010
YANGON, Mar 10 (AFP): Myanmar opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi faces exclusion from her own party and is barred from standing in polls this year under the military junta's new election laws unveiled Wednesday.
In a move branded "disappointing and regrettable" by the United States, the regime said in a law printed for the first time in state newspapers that anyone serving a prison term cannot be a member of a political party.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) -- which won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 but was stopped from taking power by the junta -- would in turn be abolished if it failed to obey the rules.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years' jail in August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. Suu Kyi's sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
"I have noticed that we have to expel Daw Suu. Their attitude is clear in this law," NLD spokesman Nyan Win told AFP, using a respectful form of address to refer to Suu Kyi.
The Political Parties Registration Act also gives the NLD just 60 days from Monday, when the law was enacted, to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, or else face dissolution.
In a move branded "disappointing and regrettable" by the United States, the regime said in a law printed for the first time in state newspapers that anyone serving a prison term cannot be a member of a political party.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) -- which won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 but was stopped from taking power by the junta -- would in turn be abolished if it failed to obey the rules.
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years' jail in August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. Suu Kyi's sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.
"I have noticed that we have to expel Daw Suu. Their attitude is clear in this law," NLD spokesman Nyan Win told AFP, using a respectful form of address to refer to Suu Kyi.
The Political Parties Registration Act also gives the NLD just 60 days from Monday, when the law was enacted, to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, or else face dissolution.