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Suu Kyi Unhappy with Election Law

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Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi describes the election law recently issued by Burma's ruling military regime as “unfair,” according to her lawyer.

Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is unhappy with the election law recently issued by Burma's ruling military regime, according to her lawyer, Nyan Win, who met her on Thursday.

“She said she did not think the regime would release such a terrible law,” Nyan Win said after meeting with Suu Kyi at her home in Rangoon on Thursday evening.

Nyan Win and another lawyer for Suu Kyi, Kyi Wynn, met with the detained democracy leader from 2 to 4 p.m. today to discuss the election law, her appeal against her current term of house arrest, and a legal dispute with her brother over repairs to their family home.

Nyan Win, who is also a spokesperson for the National League for Democracy (NLD), said Suu Kyi described the law that excluded her and other political prisoners as unfair. 

Most political prisoners were sentenced for serving their political parties, Suu Kyi said. “Forcing them out of their parties and banning them from voting because of their imprisonment is therefore a double punishment,” she was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the state-run media reported on Thursday that the Burmese regime has appointed a 17-member election commission. All of the members were selected by the regime.

The commission will be led by former Maj-Gen Thein Soe, a deputy chief justice who previously served as the judge advocate general, a military position.

The commission has a mandate to decide which political parties may contest the polls, set the rules for polling and disqualify any party or contestant for breaking those rules, according to the state-run media.

The move came four days after the regime announced the electoral law on March 8.

The election date has not yet been disclosed, although many observers and Burmese civilians believe it will be held in October or November.

 

Quotable

Nyan_win80"Once her [Aung San Suu Kyi's] sentence expires in November, and that notion is not disputed, it is our understanding that she will have served her sentence."
—Nyan Win, the foreign minister of Burma

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