Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition yesterday began its formal return to mainstream Myanmar politics as it applied to re-register as a political party, paving the way for her to run in elections.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) announced a week ago it would seek to sign up as a party again — after boycotting last year’s parliamentary poll — amid signs of reform in a country long dominated by the military.
Party officials have indicated that the 66-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi herself is likely to stand in upcoming by-elections, where 48 seats will be up for grabs, though she has yet to confirm this and no date has been set for a vote.
The NLD filed papers at the national electoral commission in the capital, Naypyidaw, yesterday morning, according to an Agence France-Presse journalist at the scene.
The commission is expected to take at least a week to approve the application, after which the NLD will need to return with two of its leaders to complete the process.
“We are very glad because this is the first step to re-registration. For the next step, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi needs to come to the electoral commission office herself,” NLD spokesman Nyan Win, who led the delegation, said.
Daw is a term of respect.
The NLD gave the commission the names of 21 party founders, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Yesterday’s application was a low-key affair, with only six NLD representatives in attendance. Access to the remote capital is strictly controlled and no party supporters were present.
No decision has yet been made on a new NLD symbol, after the party abandoned its traditional bamboo hat logo.
After decades of outright military rule, a much-criticized election in November last year — Myanmar’s first in 20 years — brought a nominally civilian government to power, albeit one dominated by the army and its proxies.
The new administration has surprised many observers with a series of reformist moves, including holding talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, passing a law giving workers the right to strike and releasing hundreds of political prisoners.
The NLD boycotted last year’s election mainly because of rules that would have forced it to expel imprisoned members. Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest then.
The party’s decision on Friday last week to end its boycott came on the same day the military-dominated government received a dramatic seal of approval from the US for its nascent reforms.
After speaking directly to Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time, US President Barack Obama said US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would visit Myanmar next week — the first US secretary of state to do so in 50 years.
Obama said Clinton’s trip was designed to stoke “flickers” of democratic reform in a country that for decades has been blighted by military rule and international isolation.
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