Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi formally registered her party yesterday for any upcoming elections, returning the Nobel Prize laureate to the political arena.
Aung San Suu Kyi decided last month to formally rejoin politics in the military-dominated country after recent reforms by the nominally civilian administration that took power this year. Aung San Suu Kyi, National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Tin Oo and other party members registered the party at the Union Election Commission in the capital, Naypyidaw.
The party boycotted last year’s general elections because of restrictive rules that among other things prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from being a candidate. The government has since lifted many of those restrictions.
The government had disqualified the NLD for boycotting the election.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win said the party would contest all vacant seats in an upcoming by-election and Aung San Suu Kyi would soon announce in which constituency she would run.
No date has been set for that election, but last week Election Commission Chairman Tin Aye said the government would announce it three months before the by-election, giving candidates time to campaign.
Allowing Aung San Suu Kyi’s party back into the political fold will likely give the government greater legitimacy at home and abroad. It has already won cautious praise from international observers and critics including the US, for introducing reforms.
During her visit to Myanmar early this month, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she wanted to ensure that future elections are “free, fair and credible in the eyes of the people.”
The polls in November last year were Myanmar’s first since the NLD overwhelmingly won a general election in 1990. The military junta at that time refused to honor the results.
The regime kept Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest during different periods for 15 years. She was released just after last year’s elections and is now free to move about and meet people.
The government continues to hold hundreds of other political prisoners and Suu Kyi has said the NLD would continue to work for their release.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese