Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) boycotted last year’s election [Reuters]
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has confirmed she will run for a parliamentary seat in April by-elections.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party (NLD), said on Tuesday that the Nobel Peace Prize winner had announced during a party meeting that she would seek a seat in suburban Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and her hometown.
Suu Kyi said last year that she would run for parliament but had appeared to backtrack since then.
A victory would give the longtime political prisoner a voice in parliament for the first time after years as country’s most prominent democracy campaigner.
Her presence will add significance to upcoming by-elections that will be held almost a year after nominally democratic elections ended a half century of military rule.
NLD decided to rejoin electoral politics following recent signs that the new government is easing years of repression.
Government reforms
The 2010 Myanmar election is alleged to have been arranged to produce a civilian government that the former military rulers wanted, with Thein Sein, a former general, elected president.
But,
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
