Suu Kyi party to boycott Myanmar polls

The party of Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi decided Monday to boycott the military-ruled country's first election in two decades after the Nobel laureate blasted new electoral rules as "undemocratic."

The main opposition National League for Democracy's refusal to participate would undermine the polls' credibility in the eyes of foreign governments, which have urged the diplomatically isolated junta to ensure all groups take part in the elections.

The military, which has run Myanmar since 1962, has touted this year's elections as part of a "roadmap to democracy," but a number of rules would prevent Suu Kyi herself from participating. The pro-democracy icon has spent 14 of the last 20 years in jail or under house arrest.

On Monday, her party's spokesman, Nyan Win, announced after a daylong meeting that all 113 delegates present had agreed that the party should not register for the elections. Cheering could be heard from the delegates as they concluded their meeting.

Nyan Win said the central committee members decided not to register because — as noted in a message sent to them by Suu Kyi — the electoral laws enacted by the junta "are unfair and unjust." Her message also called stipulations in the law "undemocratic." The party had previously objected to a provision of the party registration law that requires parties to expel members who have criminal convictions, or face deregistration.

Because Suu Kyi was convicted last year of allowing an unregistered guest to stay at her home, the provision would appear not to allow her to be a member of the National League for Democracy, which she helped found.

Suu Kyi is still general-secretary of the party and its most dominant figure. Security was heightened, with plainclothes police and pro-government security guards stationed around the party's compound as the delegates met Monday in Yangon.

"This meeting is a life-or-death issue. If we don't register, we will not have a party and we will be without legs and limbs," said Win Tin, a veteran party member and one of Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoners, having spent 19 years behind bars before his release in 2008.

- Asian Tribune -