Suu Kyi warns of election tampering post-floods

Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Thursday that deadly flooding affecting large swathes of the country may be used as a pretext to unsettle elections.

"We do not want this natural disaster to be a reason for upsetting the necessary political process without which our country will not be able to make long term progress," Suu Kyi said in a video published on her Facebook page, which also called on international relief for massive floods wrecking havoc across the country.

The pro-democracy icon drew similarities to a constitutional referendum that took place in May 2008, days after Cyclone Nargis left 140,000 people dead in its wake.

The 2008 constitutional referendum "raised very many questions about the effectiveness of that referendum, about how acceptable the results of that referendum were," Suu Kyi said.

"We do not want such questions to be raised this time with regard to our elections. So let us deal with what we need to deal now, and in the best way possible, to make sure that future of our people, socially, economical and politically, is assured," the Nobel laureate said.

Suu Kyi's statement comes as disastrous floods have claimed the lives of at least 69 people and left more than 250,000 people displaced.

Myanmar is set to vote in a general election slated for November 8.

ls/jil (AP, AFP)