Aung Kyi Confirms Parliament interest

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Bangkok - Arabstoday   Myanmar’s opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, confirmed on Tuesday that she will run for a seat in the country’s new Parliament in a by-election scheduled for April that will see her party, the National League for Democracy, enter the new political structure for the first time. A party spokesman told reporters that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, would seek one of 48 seats that became vacant after a parliamentary election in November 2010, mostly when members were appointed to cabinet positions. Last week the government approved the participation of the N.L.D., which formally registered as a party in December after being removed from the list of approved parties when it boycotted the general election. It called the electoral rules unfair, partly because they excluded Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi as a candidate. That vote ended half a century of direct military rule and installed a military-backed civilian government that has since enacted several reforms and has maintained continuing contacts with Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi. The election was the first since 1990 when the N.L.D. overwhelmingly won a parliamentary election that was annulled by the military. Asked at a news conference last week what reforms she would like to see before endorsing the lifting of economic sanctions by the United States and European nations, she said listed “free and fair by-elections,” along with the release of political prisoners and efforts to end long-running armed conflicts with ethnic groups.