Suu Kyi condemns election ban
Detained Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said she is surprised but undaunted by the military government's new election laws that will bar her from running for office or even voting in polls to be held this year.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate described the laws as "repressive" and "unjust" and called for a strong response from supporters of her democracy movement, but has not yet specified what they should do, her party spokesman Nyan Win said.
The country's ruling junta enacted five election-related laws to govern polling to be held some time this year, and has been gradually unveiling details.
Several provisions announced so far severely curtail Ms Suu Kyi's involvement in politics, even if she were to be freed from house arrest before her term ends in November.
"Aung San Suu Kyi said she never expected such repressive laws would come out but said she's not disappointed," Nyan Win told reporters after meeting the 64-year-old democracy leader at her home.
"She said such challenges call for resolute responses and calls on the people and democratic forces to take unanimous action against such unfair laws."
Nyan Win said he was not yet in a position to say what the responses might be. Her party has yet to decide whether it will participate in the elections. Political parties have 60 days from Monday to register.
It will be the first poll since 1990, when Ms Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory. The junta ignored the results of that vote and kept Ms Suu Kyi jailed or under detention for 14 of the past 20 years. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
This year's elections are part of the junta's long-announced "roadmap to democracy", which critics deride as a sham designed to cement the military's power.
A military-backed constitution was approved by a national referendum last May, but the opposition charges that the vote was unfair.
An election law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime from being a member of a political party, making Ms Suu Kyi ineligible to become a candidate in the elections - or even a member of the party she co-founded and heads.
In August, Ms Suu Kyi was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside residence, and was sentenced to 18 more months of detention.
Election laws take away her right to vote, saying those convicted of crimes are barred from the polls.
The new laws also formally invalidated the 1990 election results, saying the 1989 election law under which those polls were held was repealed by the new legislation.
