The party of Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi decided yesterday 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 (NLD) 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 Aung San Suu Kyi herself from participating.
The pro-democracy icon has spent 14 of the last 20 years in jail or under house arrest.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won the last election held in Myanmar in 1990 by a landslide, but was barred by the military from taking power.
Yesterday, her party’s spokesman, Nyan Win, announced after a day-long 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 Aung San Suu Kyi — the electoral laws enacted by the junta “are unfair and unjust.”
Her message also called stipulations in the law “undemocratic.”
Nyan Win did not elaborate, but 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 de-registration.
Because Aung San 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.
Aung San Suu Kyi is general-secretary of the party and its most dominant figure.
The new election laws require political parties to register before the first week in May.
Parties that do not register will not be able to participate in this year’s election and will cease to exist under rules enacted this month by the military government that also bar Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in the polls.
No date has been set for the polls, which critics deride as a sham designed to cement the power of the military.
Even before the official decision, party spokesman Nyan Win indicated the party would decide not to register.
Asked if that would marginalize the party, he said: “We will continue to exist politically by not registering. If we register, we will only have a name void of all political essence.”
“We will survive as long as we have public support,” Nyan Win said.
Security was heightened, with plainclothes police and security guards stationed around the party’s compound as the delegates met yesterday 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.
He said the journey ahead would be difficult if the party chooses to opt out of elections, but that its members could still maintain their democratic principles and spirit.
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