Myanmar’s latest law bars democracy leader Suu Kyi from running and voting in elections

Law bars Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi from voting

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from running in upcoming elections and won’t even be allowed to vote, according to laws published Thursday.

The junta has also formally invalidated her party’s landslide win in the last polls, held two decades ago.

Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, has described the new laws as “repressive” and “unjust,” but remains committed to carrying on her political work, Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party said.

“Aung San Suu Kyi said she never expected such repressive laws would come out,” Nyan Win told reporters after meeting her at her home.

But he added: “She said such challenges call for resolute responses and calls on the people and democratic forces to take unanimous action against such unfair laws,” said Nyan Win who met Suu Kyi at her house Thursday.

Still, the party has yet to decide whether it will participate in the elections, for which a date has not been announced. It will be the first poll since 1990, when Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory.

The junta ignored the results of that vote and has kept Suu Kyi jailed or under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

The junta enacted five election-related laws Monday that set out the rules for the next polls. So far, it has made four of the laws public — two of which were unveiled Thursday and pertain to the election of candidates to parliament.

Also Thursday, the junta announced the makeup of the Election Commission, which will oversee the polls and be headed by a former high-ranking army officer.

Like the election laws announced earlier in the week, the latest included more provisions that ban Suu Kyi from the political scene.

They stipulate that anyone convicted of a crime — as Suu Kyi was in August for the first time — is barred from running or voting in the elections for the upper and lower houses.

The two laws also formally invalidated the 1990 elections results, saying the 1989 election law under which those polls were held was repealed by the new legislation.

Asked for comment, Nyan Win said, “We won the race but the referee took away the prize.”

It comes as yet another blow to the NLD, which has been demanding for the last two decades that the results be recognized.

“They have been slowly trying to decimate the party and now they are doing it with utmost force. But the NLD will never collapse,” said the party’s deputy chairman, Tin Oo.

The United States and human rights groups warned that the junta was running out of chances to make the elections appear credible. Clauses in the constitution already ensure that the military will retain a controlling say in government and bar Suu Kyi from holding office.

“This is a step in the wrong direction,” U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington. “The political party registration law makes a mockery of the democratic process and ensures that the upcoming elections will be devoid of credibility.”

“The new law’s assault on opposition parties is sadly predictable,” Brad Adams, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “It continues the sham political process that is aimed at creating the appearance of civilian rule with a military spine.”

State television and radio on Thursday announced that the Election Commission will be made up of 17 members and chaired by deputy chief justice Thein Soe, a former high ranking army officer and previous head of the military court system. Other members included retired civil servants, judges and lawyers — all chosen by the junta.