Suu Kyi to boycott vote if she can’t run for President

YANGON — Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi signalled that her party would boycott general elections in 2015 if the Constitution is not amended to allow her to run for President, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

The Nobel laureate’s comments raised the stakes around the election and its potential to upset Myanmar’s progress towards democracy.

“One should not take part in a competition which was arranged to give one side an unfair advantage,” Ms Suu Kyi said on Sunday to a crowd of 30,000 gathered in Tharyarwaddy, north of Yangon. The speech was posted on her party’s Facebook page and reported by local media.

Politicians “who possess moral dignity”, she added, should not participate in the vote.

Under the Constitution, Ms Suu Kyi cannot assume the presidency because she was married to a foreign national.

She was held in detention for 15 of the past 21 years under the military regime that ruled Myanmar for nearly 50 years until democratic elections were held in November 2010.

Mr Nyan Win, the spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), said on Tuesday that the party has “at the present time, not decided whether to run or not”.

The NLD would be a strong contender to win in 2015, and would likely select Ms Suu Kyi as President if she were allowed to run. DOW JONES