Myanmar bars Suu Kyi's election participation

A security guard walks past a picture showing an image of imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi displayed on the front gate of the British embassy in the Indonesian capital in late February.

Yangon, Myanmar (CNN) -- Myanmar's ruling junta has announced a new election law that disqualifies pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in upcoming national elections.

The Political Parties Registration Law, announced in state-run newspapers Wednesday, excludes electoral participation by members of a political party if they have been convicted in court.

A Myanmar court convicted Suu Kyi, 64, last August for breaching the terms of her house arrest after American John Yettaw swam uninvited to her lakeside house in Yangon and briefly stayed there. Her ongoing detention was extended to this November, and last month a court rejected her appeal for freedom.

Suu Kyi's supporters have said the conviction was a way to remove her from the election campaign. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest.

The new law forces Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to choose between honoring her as its leader and risking the party being declared illegal or ejecting Suu Kyi from the party and contesting the election.

The NLD has 60 days to decide its course of action, but party spokesman Nyan Winn said Wednesday that the party would not comply with the new law.

Suu Kyi, the iconic face of democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma, was placed under house arrest in 1989.

The next year, the NLD won more than 80 percent of the legislative seats in the first free elections in the country in nearly 30 years. But the military junta disqualified Suu Kyi from serving because of her house arrest and never recognized the election results.

The junta has promised to hold elections -- which would be the first since 1990 -- later this year, touting them as a step toward democracy. No polling date has been set yet.

The new government stipulation is the latest political hurdle for Suu Kyi.

She was already banned from becoming president by Myanmar's recently amended constitution, which prohibits presidents and their parents, spouses and children from owing allegiance to another country.

Suu Kyi was married to British academic Michael Aris, who died in 1999, and has two sons with him.

The United States considers Myanmar's military regime repressive for cracking down on political opposition, the most prominent of whom is Suu Kyi. However, after years of refusing direct talks with the reclusive nation, Washington has recently indicated a possible re-engagement.

Source :http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/10/myanmar.election.law/index.html?section=cnn_latest