Suu Kyi’s NLD to participate in historic Myanmar polls in Nov

The confirmation comes after Myanmar on Wednesday set November 8 as the day for polls expected to be the most important election in a generation. Critics say the military still is the ultimate power holder.

But despite the loss the Nobel laureate had vowed not to “back down” from the election and her opposition is tipped to make huge gains at the ballot box if the vote is free and fair.

Another clause has the effect of barring Suu Kyi from presidency.

With Ms Suu Kyi barred from the top job and no obvious second candidate within the NLD, there has been widespread speculation that the party could end up supporting a presidential candidate outside its ranks.

“We are not going to the election without having an idea of how we intend to handle this problem”, Suu Kyi said.

Suu Kyi was underneath home arrest on the time of 2010 vote, however was launched six days later.

The president is not directly elected by the public, but chosen by MPs following the vote.

The NLD leader confirmed she would defend her seat in Kawhmu township, Yangon Region.

How will the NLD fare?

The democracy icon spent some 15 years under house arrest and was also locked up during the last general election in 2010, which was boycotted by the NLD and marred by accusations of cheating. But the party dominated subsequent by-elections in 2012. She said Saturday she will stand again in her constituency. A quarter of all seats in parliament are reserved for unelected military officials, giving them an effective veto over any changes to the unpopular 2008 constitution.

“I think we have to look at post-election, he said”.

At the heart of negotiations over which presidential candidate to support will likely be the long-standing demand of ethnic parties to devolve power from the centre to regions that have been plagued by insurgencies for decades.

“The country (could) face indefinite political stalemate”.

The party will be pitted against the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

The party is yet to identify its candidate for the presidency.

The July 6 editorial “Burma’s grim reality” did not give Myanmar sufficient credit for the extraordinary political, economic and democratic reforms it has undertaken since 2011.

Although his government is nominally civilian, the military still wields enormous power over the country.

Antipathy towards the Rohingya, and Muslims more generally, has been drummed up by radical nationalist fringes of the country’s powerful Buddhist clergy, which has been pushing for a legal ban on interfaith marriages and other discriminatory measures meant to “protect” Burmese Buddhism.

The government is also attempting to sign a ceasefire with the armed ethnic rebel groups that have taken up arms since independence in 1948.

Representing the Shan minority – who are estimated to make up less than 10 per cent of the population – the SNDP is confident of a thundering victory in and around Shan State, a conflict-scarred and hilly region in the east of Myanmar that borders China, Laos and Thailand.