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Suu Kyi party to register for Myanmar elections

Agence France Presse - November 18, 2011

Hla Hla Htay – Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition announced its return to Myanmar's political arena Friday, as the country's nascent reforms received a dramatic seal of approval from the United States.

After speaking directly to Nobel laureate Suu Kyi for the first time, in a call from Air Force One, US President Barack Obama said Hillary Clinton would next month become the first secretary of state to visit Myanmar for 50 years.

Attending an Asian summit in Indonesia, Obama said Clinton's December 1-2 trip was designed to stoke "flickers" of democratic reform in a country that for decades has been blighted by military rule and international isolation.

In rare elections a year ago, Myanmar's military rulers gave way to a nominally civilian administration which released Suu Kyi from years of house arrest and has since made a surprising series of conciliatory gestures.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) said it would re-register as a political party and contest coming by-elections after boycotting last year's poll – paving the way for the 66-year-old democracy heroine to run for office.

She told her party on Friday that they should rejoin the mainstream political process and contest all 48 seats available in upcoming by-elections.

"Why? The NLD has not worked as a political party for a long time so we need to practise as a political party again," she said to party delegates in Yangon, before their official decision to re-register was announced.

The NLD won a landslide victory in polls in 1990 but the then-ruling junta never allowed the party to take power. Suu Kyi, although a figurehead for the campaign, was under house arrest throughout.

Myanmar's next election was not held until November last year, and the NLD boycotted it – mainly because of rules that would have forced it to expel imprisoned members. Suu Kyi was again under house arrest.

EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton welcomed the "courageous" return of the NLD to the political arena as another sign of "great hope" in the military-dominated nation.

"This is a courageous and welcome decision. Fair and transparent elections leading to a wider representation of the people in the Burmese parliament will be a key step towards making national reconciliation a reality," she said.

After spending 15 of the past 22 years in detention, Suu Kyi hinted to her party on Friday that she would stand for office herself in the by-elections. No polling dates have yet been set.

"If I think I should take part in the election, I will. Some people are worried that taking part could harm my dignity. Frankly, if you do politics, you should not be thinking about your dignity," she said.

"I stand for the re-registration of the NLD party. I would like to work effectively towards amending the constitution. So we have to do what we need to do."

Party spokesman Nyan Win said the group would re-register as soon as they could, possibly next week. Asked whether Suu Kyi would stand, he said: "I believe she will."

Myanmar's 2010 election, widely discredited by outside observers, brought the army's political proxies to power after decades of outright military rule, but the new government has surprised critics with its recent reformist moves.

It has held direct talks with Suu Kyi, freed some 200 dissidents from jail, frozen work on an unpopular mega-dam and passed a law giving workers the right to strike.

As a reward for its conciliatory moves, Myanmar has won Southeast Asia's backing to chair the region's ASEAN bloc in 2014, despite concerns the move was premature.

Analysts say the return of the NLD would add to the legitimacy of the army-backed government, which is seeking to end its global isolation by loosening political shackles – but would also increase the relevance of the popular but long-excluded Suu Kyi.

Renaud Egreteau, Myanmar expert at Hong Kong University, said Suu Kyi had been led "back to the game" by Prime Minister Thein Sein. "It is he and his entourage who have brought Aung San Suu Kyi back to the front of the stage because they need her," he told AFP.

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