Myanmar elections

Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is set to contest upcoming by-elections in her country, opposition sources said Tuesday, in a move that could see her win a seat in Myanmar's parliament.

"It's official. She will contest in Kawhmu Township, Yangon," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Kawhmu is located in the southwestern part of the Yangon region. The area was among those worst hit by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, which claimed 138,000 lives in the Yangon Region and Irrawaddy Delta.

If she wins a seat, it is likely Suu Kyi will be declared opposition leader in the Burmese parliament. This would make her eligible for positions on various government committees, government sources told German news agency DPA.

The by-election is being held to fill 48 seats left vacant when cabinet members assumed their ministerial posts in March last year.

Reports that Suu Kyi would run follow approval last week by the Election Commission for the NLD to register for the polls. In May 2010, the party was declared illegal and ordered to disband by the country's former military junta after it refused to register for elections to be held later that year.

In those polls, a half-century of rule by the junta came to an end with the formation of a military-backed nominally civilian government, which has taken strides to end the country's international isolation and open dialogue with Suu Kyi and the NLD.

The NLD had won an overwhelming majority in general elections held previous to that in 1990, but were blocked from assuming power by the junta. In the lead up to those elections, Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1991, was detained under house arrest and spent some 15 out of the next 21 years in detention until her most recent release in November 2010.

Author: Darren Mara (AP, dpa)
Editor: Anne Thomas