Myanmar bars Suu Kyi from voting

 

YANGON, March 11 (AP): Not only is Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi effectively barred from upcoming elections, but she will not be allowed to vote - and her opposition party's landslide win at the last polls has been formally invalidated, according to new election laws published Thursday. Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy, reacted to the latest laws with uncharacteristically strong words and defiance.
"They have been slowly trying to decimate the party and now they are doing it with utmost force. But the NLD will never collapse," said the party's deputy chairman, Tin Oo. The date for the election has not yet been announced. It will be the first election since 1990, when Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory. The junta ignored the results of those polls and has kept Suu Kyi jailed or under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years.
The junta enacted five election-related laws Monday that set out the rules for the next polls. So far, it has made four of the laws public - two of which were unveiled Thursday that pertain to the election of candidates to the upper and lower houses of parliament. Like the election laws announced earlier in the week, the latest included more provisions that effectively block Suu Kyi from the political scene.
They stipulate that anyone convicted of a crime - as Suu Kyi was in August - is barred from running or voting in the elections for the upper and lower houses. The two laws also formally invalidated the 1990 elections results, saying the 1989 election law under which those polls were held was repealed by the new legislation. It comes as yet another blow to the NLD, which has been demanding the results be recognized for the last two decades.
An election law announced Wednesday, the Political Parties Registration Law, prohibits anyone convicted of a crime from being a member of a political party. It makes Suu Kyi ineligible to become a candidate in the elections. One of the strongest reactions came from the Philippines, a partner with Myanmar in the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose members rarely voice criticism of each other.
"Unless they release Aung San Suu Kyi and allow her and her party to participate in elections, it's a complete farce and therefore contrary to their roadmap to democracy," Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo told The Associated Press. The United States and human rights groups warned that the junta was running out of chances to make the elections appear credible. "This is a step in the wrong direction," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington. "The political party registration law makes a mockery of the democratic process and ensures that the upcoming elections will be devoid of credibility."
One-fourth of the parliament will be appointed by the military. The latest laws said a newly created 440-member House of Representatives will have 330 elected civilians and 110 military representatives. A 224-member House of Nationalities will have 168 elected candidates and 56 nominated by the military chief. Anyone disrupting the voting can be imprisoned for a year, the law says. "The new law's assault on opposition parties is sadly predictable," Brad Adams, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "It continues the sham political process that is aimed at creating the appearance of civilian rule with a military spine."
In August, Suu Kyi was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside residence, and was sentenced to 18 more months of detention. The sentence was interpreted as a way of keeping her locked up during the election. On Wednesday evening, authorities began to reopen several NLD offices in Yangon by removing red wax that had been sealed over their locks since 2003 to restrict party activities, party spokesman Nyan Win said.
"Maybe they want to show some flexibility," said Nyan Win, noting that the move seemed tied to another provision of the election laws that says existing political parties have 60 days from Monday to register. The government currently recognizes 10 parties, including the NLD. The date of the elections has not been announced, and Suu Kyi's party has not said whether it will take part.

 

YANGON, March 11 (Reuters): Myanmar's military government has allowed the party of detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to reopen regional branch offices that have been closed since May 2003, a party spokesman said on Thursday. "So far as we have heard, about 100 branch offices have been reopened across the country, effective Wednesday," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD).
The government closed down NLD branch offices after an attack on Suu Kyi's convoy by pro-regime elements on May 30, 2003. Scores of NLD followers were killed, according to her supporters. Nyan Win gave a guarded welcome to the government's move. "Yes, it's a positive step," he said. "I think they want us to take part in the election, but we still haven't made up our mind about this. We still need to talk it over among the top leaders, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi."
The junta plans elections at an unspecified date this year, although the poll has been widely derided in advance as a sham to make the country appear democratic, with the military retaining control over key ministries and institutions. This week it began publishing a series of election laws in state media. The second, published on Wednesday, obliges the NLD and some other parties to re-register within 60 days with a new election commission. Failure to do so means they will have to fold.
In order to register, they have to exclude party members who are serving prison terms. That would include Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention and is now serving 18 months in house detention for breaching security laws. Many other senior NLD members are among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to rights activists. All would effectively be barred from taking part in the election.
Nyan Win described some of the provisions of the new law as "completely unacceptable." Parties wanting to register also have to give a written commitment to uphold the constitution passed in 2008, which the NLD rejects and campaigned against. "It's completely impossible for us," Nyan Win said on Wednesday.