Burmese junta outlaws Aung San Suu Kyi from elections
Burma's military rulers announce new law effectively banning Aung San Suu Kyi from contesting elections later this year
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Wednesday, 10, Mar 2010 05:52
By Matthew Champion.
Burma's military rulers have announced a new law barring anyone with a criminal conviction of joining a political party and contesting elections - effectively banning Aung San Suu Kyi from standing for election.
Parliamentary elections are due to be held in the south-east Asian country this year on a date yet to be determined.
On Wednesday state-run newspapers announced the new law - the political parties registration law - which has been condemned by Daw Suu Kyi's supporters as a deliberate and targeted attempt to exclude her from the elections.
Last year the 64-year-old was convicted of breaching the terms of her house arrest after an American man swam unsolicited to her dilapidated Rangoon house.
The law also bars people who have lodged an appeal against a conviction, a fact that her National League for Democracy (NLD) party says shows the law is clearly aimed at Daw Suu Kyi.
More than 2,100 political prisoners currently held by the Burmese junta will also be banned from participating in the elections, while the NLD will have 60 days to decide whether to expel Daw Suu Kyi and other prisoners from the party if it wants to field any candidates.
Since 1990 Daw Suu Kyi has spent just five years out of detention, whether in prison or under house arrest.
She was given a further 18 months house arrest in August when a trial dismissed as politically motivated by international observers found her guilty over US citizen John Yettaw's night-time swim.
Her NLD party won a landslide election victory at the turn of the last decade, but since then the ruling junta has entrenched its power by hiding Daw Suu Kyi from the public eye.
Recently she appealed for direct talks with Burma's military rulers in order to help ease sanctions against the country, although generals are yet to respond.