Yangon.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Burma's government on Thursday approved
her National League for Democracy to run in upcoming by-elections.
Suu Kyi
declined to say yet if she herself will stand in the election when pressed on
the issue, but party spokesman Nyan Win said Suu Kyi intends to run.
The highly
anticipated by-election set for April 1 will return Suu Kyi's party to
mainstream politics after two decades. In 1991 elections, the then-ruling junta
refused to accept a NLD victory, and the party boycotted general elections in
2010 because of restrictions that among other things would have prevented Suu
Kyi from running.
That vote
installed a nominally civilian government that has eased restrictions on
politics and other matters
Suu Kyi and
Nyan Win spoke to The Associated Press in an interview at the Nobel laureate's
residence Thursday.
Most of the
48 Parliament seats being contested in the April vote were vacated by MPs who
became Cabinet ministers after the first parliamentary session last January.
Nyan Win
said the NLD will start accepting new members on Monday.
Political
parties must submit their candidate list for the by-election by Jan. 31.
The
military is guaranteed 110 seats in the 440-seat lower house, and 56 seats in
the 224-seat upper house, and the pro-military party now occupies 80 percent of
the remaining 498 elected seats, so the 48 seats up for grabs, even if the NLD
wins them all, will not change the balance of power.
Associated Press
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Aung San
Suu Kyi said she trusted the Burmese president
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