Suu Kyi must quit party under new election law - Spokesman

MYANMAR: Myanmar's new election laws mean the opposition National League for Democracy must expel detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi from its ranks ahead of polls this year, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Details of the Political Parties Registration Act published in state newspapers say that anyone serving a prison term cannot be a party member and that parties that fail to obey this will be abolished. Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years in jail in August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. The sentence was commuted by junta supremo Than Shwe to 18 months under house arrest.

"I have noticed that we have to expel Daw Suu. Their attitude is clear in this law," NLD spokesman Nyan Win told AFP.

"I was extremely surprised when I saw this, I did not think it would be so bad."

The new law also gives the NLD 60 days to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, which the junta has promised some time this year. The NLD has not yet decided whether it wants to participate.

Under Suu Kyi's leadership the party won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 by a landslide but the military regime annulled the result.

Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the subsequent 20 years. YANGON, Wednesday, AFP