Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday said her opposition would participate in historic polls set for November 8, vowing the party would amend the constitution that bars her from the presidency if it wins.
It will be the first general election in a quarter of a century to be contested by the National League for Democracy (NLD), which is expected to make huge gains in the ballot box if the vote is free and fair.
"We have decided to take part in the election," Suu Kyi told a room packed with reporters at her residence in the capital Naypyidaw.
The confirmation comes after months of speculation over whether the party would boycott elections seen as a crucial test of Myanmar's transition towards democracy after decades of outright military rule ended in 2011.
The NLD had refused to rule out not standing as it battled to amend a junta-era charter that bars those with a foreign spouse or children from the presidency -- Suu Kyi's late husband and two sons are British.
But after last month losing a key parliamentary vote aimed at ending the military's effective veto on constitutional change -- the first hurdle in changing the provision barring her from the top job -- the Nobel laureate said she would not back down.
Flanked by senior party figures at the press conference, a determined Suu Kyi said her opposition knew she would be "debarred" from the presidency.
She said there was "a plan" in place to get around the fact that the party had yet to name a potential candidate for the leadership if it wins at the polls -- though she declined to reveal details.
"We are not going to the election without having an idea of how we intend to handle this problem," Suu Kyi said.
She added that the party would redouble its constitutional change efforts after the polls.
"If the NLD wins in the election, we will amend the constitution," she told journalists.
With Suu Kyi barred from the top job and no obvious second candidate within the NLD, there has been widespread speculation that the party could end up supporting a presidential candidate outside its ranks.
Experts fear horsetrading between the election and the announcement of presidential candidates several months later could trigger instability in the nation, where the military has a history of crushing dissent.
- Concern over voter lists -
For Myanmar's roughly 30 million voters the election presents a rare opportunity to cast their votes in a nationwide poll contested by the country's main opposition.
The NLD won national polls in 1990 by a landslide, while Suu Kyi was under house arrest. But it was prevented from taking power by the military, who had plunged the country into decades of isolation.
Suu Kyi spent some 15 years under house arrest and was also locked up during the last general election in 2010, which was boycotted by the NLD and marred by accusations of cheating.
But the opposition leader and 44 of her party members now sit in parliament after a 2012 by-election held as part of sweeping reforms under a quasi-civilian government following the end of outright military rule in 2011.
A pressing concern for the party in recent weeks has been the status of official voter lists, with election officials acknowledging that those displayed across the country are riddled with inaccuracies.
Suu Kyi reiterated that the lists needed to be corrected if the elections were to be free and fair, as President Thein Sein promised again after the poll date was announced on Wednesday.
The Myanmar leader, a former general, has been cheered by the international community for unleashing political and economic reforms that have cracked open the country's isolation, sparking the end of most Western sanctions.
But as elections loom, fears have grown that the nation, which was ruled by the military for nearly half a century, might be back-pedalling on its democratic transition.
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday said her opposition would participate in historic polls set for November 8, vowing the party would amend the constitution that bars her from the presidency if it wins.
It will be the first general election in a quarter of a century to be contested by the National League for Democracy (NLD), which is expected to make huge gains in the ballot box if the vote is free and fair.
“We have decided to take part in the election,” Suu Kyi told a room packed with reporters at her residence in the capital Naypyidaw.
The confirmation comes after months of speculation over whether the party would boycott elections seen as a crucial test of Myanmar’s transition towards democracy after decades of outright military rule ended in 2011.
The NLD had refused to rule out not standing as it battled to amend a junta-era charter that bars those with a foreign spouse or children from the presidency — Suu Kyi’s late husband and two sons are British.
But after last month losing a key parliamentary vote aimed at ending the military’s effective veto on constitutional change — the first hurdle in changing the provision barring her from the top job — the Nobel laureate said she would not back down.
Flanked by senior party figures at the press conference, a determined Suu Kyi said her opposition knew she would be “debarred” from the presidency.
She said there was “a plan” in place to get around the fact that the party had yet to name a potential candidate for the leadership if it wins at the polls — though she declined to reveal details.
“We are not going to the election without having an idea of how we intend to handle this problem,” Suu Kyi said.
She added that the party would redouble its constitutional change efforts after the polls.
“If the NLD wins in the election, we will amend the constitution,” she told journalists.
With Suu Kyi barred from the top job and no obvious second candidate within the NLD, there has been widespread speculation that the party could end up supporting a presidential candidate outside its ranks.
Experts fear horsetrading between the election and the announcement of presidential candidates several months later could trigger instability in the nation, where the military has a history of crushing dissent.
– Concern over voter lists –
For Myanmar’s roughly 30 million voters the election presents a rare opportunity to cast their votes in a nationwide poll contested by the country’s main opposition.
The NLD won national polls in 1990 by a landslide, while Suu Kyi was under house arrest. But it was prevented from taking power by the military, who had plunged the country into decades of isolation.
Suu Kyi spent some 15 years under house arrest and was also locked up during the last general election in 2010, which was boycotted by the NLD and marred by accusations of cheating.
But the opposition leader and 44 of her party members now sit in parliament after a 2012 by-election held as part of sweeping reforms under a quasi-civilian government following the end of outright military rule in 2011.
A pressing concern for the party in recent weeks has been the status of official voter lists, with election officials acknowledging that those displayed across the country are riddled with inaccuracies.
Suu Kyi reiterated that the lists needed to be corrected if the elections were to be free and fair, as President Thein Sein promised again after the poll date was announced on Wednesday.
The Myanmar leader, a former general, has been cheered by the international community for unleashing political and economic reforms that have cracked open the country’s isolation, sparking the end of most Western sanctions.
But as elections loom, fears have grown that the nation, which was ruled by the military for nearly half a century, might be back-pedalling on its democratic transition.
