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Aung San Suu Kyi slams ¡¥repressive¡¦
election laws
AP, YANGON, MYANMAR
Saturday, Mar 13, 2010, Page 4
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A woman stands under the sign for the Yangon
division office of the National League for Democracy on Thursday in Tarmwe
township in Yangon, Myanmar.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Myanmar¡¦s military regime yesterday unveiled the last of its election laws,
which detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has described as unjust and
repressive.
The laws bar the Nobel Peace laureate from running for office or even voting in
polls and greatly weaken her National League for Democracy (NLD). The date of
the election has not been announced.
The fifth and last law, carried in state-owned newspapers yesterday, governs
elections to 14 regional parliaments. Details of the five laws have trickled out
over the course of the week.
¡§Aung San Suu Kyi said she never expected such repressive laws would come out
but said she¡¦s not disappointed,¡¨ her party spokesman Nyan Win told reporters
after meeting the 64-year-old democracy leader at her home on Thursday.
¡¥UNFAIR¡¦
¡§She said such challenges call for resolute responses and calls on the people
and democratic forces to take unanimous action against such unfair laws,¡¨ he
said.
Nyan Win said he was not yet in a position to say how the party would respond.
Her party has yet to decide whether it will participate in the elections.
Political parties have 60 days from Monday to register.
It will be the first poll since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi¡¦s party won a
landslide victory. The junta ignored the results of that vote and has kept her
jailed or under detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
This year¡¦s elections are part of the junta¡¦s ¡§roadmap to democracy,¡¨ which
critics deride as a sham designed to cement the military¡¦s power.
REFERENDUM
A military-backed Constitution was approved by a national referendum last May,
but the opposition charges that the vote was unfair.
An election law announced on Wednesday prohibits anyone convicted of a crime
from being a member of a political party, making Aung San Suu Kyi ineligible to
become a candidate in the elections ¡X or even a member of the party she
co-founded and heads.
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