Myanmar’s election commission has given the green signal to the country’s main Opposition party to contest upcoming by-elections. A month after National League for Democracy (NLD) decided to rejoin national politics, its leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 20 other members applied for the party’s registration to the Union Election Commission on December 23.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win told media on Thursday that it got the approval of the Election Commission, and registered to participate in the April by-elections. Suu Kyi, who earlier said the party would contest all the 48 seats to which by-elections are held, in which she also would be a candidate, has not yet officially announced her decision. In an interview to BBC on Thursday, the Nobel laureate said she was optimistic Burma would hold “full democratic elections” in her lifetime.
Myanmar will hold by-elections on April 1 to 40 seats in the Lower House, six in the Upper House and two in the regional Assemblies to replace Members of Parliament who resigned in April last year to take up Cabinet positions.
The South East Asian country ended nearly half-a-century of military rule in April 2010 when a government led by Thein Sein was sworn in.
Top Generals of the Myanmar military regime were elected under the banner of Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), political arm of the military regime, which swept the general elections held in November 2010.
After seven years’ house detention, Suu Kyi was released on November 13, within hours of the USDP ensuring victory in the elections in which both she and her party were denied participation.
Full Article: Suu Kyi’s Party Gets Approval To Contest Myanmar By-election.
