Suu Kyi urges party and public to monitor polls

Thursday, 26 August 2010 19:13 Myint Maung

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has agreed with her party’s decision to boycott Burmese elections on November 7 and urged members and the public to monitor polling fairness, her lawyer said.

The response came during a two-hour meeting between the National League for Democracy (NLD) party general secretary and Nobel Peace laureate, and her laywers, Nyan Win, Kyi Win and Khin Htay Kywe, at her home in the former Burmese capital of Rangoon, from 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

“She agreed with the decision of the party leaders to boycott the elections and asserted that the boycott actually started since the party’s central committee decided not to stand in the elections on March 29,” lawyer Nyan Win told Mizzima.

Despite the decision, she said: “The party should not ignore them and should watch them closely. Even though the electoral rules are not fair, we still need to monitor the polls to know whether the junta can follow its own laws even if they are preferential to it [and the parties it supports],” Nyan Win quoted Suu Kyi as saying.

The boycott was officially decided at a meeting of seven central executive committee members and eight central committee members at the home of NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo on August 19. It said the decision was reached because the junta’s 2008 constitution and electoral laws for this year’s polls were “unfair and one-sided”.

At the meeting on Tuesday, Suu Kyi and her laywers discussed legal cases regarding her home renovations and her appeal against the sentence that extended her house arrest, Nyan Win said, without disclosing case details. He added that Suu Kyi was in good health.

The authorities have told Suu Kyi and her lawyers to have the house renovations finished this month. Some painting and window replacements were incomplete.

While Rangoon Central Court on May 10 granted Suu Kyi special leave to appeal against the extension of her house arrest, it has failed to set a date for the hearing.

American citizen John Yettaw entered Suu Kyi’s property after swimming across Inya Lake days before the period of her house arrest was to finish. Over the visit, Suu Kyi was charged under section 22 of the Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts and sentenced to three years in prison by the North District Court in Insein Prison on August 11, 2009.

However, amid great international pressure, junta leader Senior General Than Shwe commuted her sentence to 18 months under house arrest in accord with Criminal Procedure Code section 401, sub-section (5). He ordered that half her sentence be remitted and the remainder, suspended, which means NLD leaders hope Suu Kyi will be released a week after the forthcoming election.

The ruling military junta announced on August 13 the date of general elections.