Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi threatens to boycott newly-won seats

Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy is set to boycott the seats it won in a landslide by-election victory earlier this month in a row over the parliament's oath of allegiance. 

By Dean Nelson, South Asia Editor

2:31PM BST 17 Apr 2012

A senior member of her party's National Executive Committee told The Daily Telegraph its 43 new MPs will not take up their seats until the government withdraws an oath they must swear to 'safeguard' the constitution.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (C) greets supporters during a visit to her constituency on the occasion of festivities surrounding the country's new year in Kawhmu outside Yangon  Photo: AFP

Miss Suu Kyi campaigned in the Burma by-elections on a pledge to amend the country's new constitution which guarantees 25 per cent of all seats to the country's feared military. She has written to the President, former general Thein Sein, asking him to change the oath and replace it with a pledge to 'observe' the constitution instead.

Key aides to the democracy movement icon believe the president will agree, but they fear it could require a constitutional amendment which could take months.

Their entry into the parliament has been widely anticipated as a key moment in the country's democratic reforms, but any delay in the NLD's entry into parliament could set back hopes for sanctions against the government to be eased.

Veteran NLD leader Win Tin, a lawyer who spent 19 years in jail, said his party did not want to boycott the parliament and respected the president for his reforms, but will not take up their role in parliament until the matter is resolved.

He said the government had changed electoral law to require candidates to 'respect' the constitution but the change had not been applied to requirements of new MPs.

"Aung San Suu Kyi sent a letter to the president. If we can't make a judgment on that term, we have to look for a constitutional amendment which will take a long time. I don't know what the president will do, they should have solved this is previous weeks," he said.

"We have no intention to boycott. I hope the president will be willing to do it, but if they don't do it we will have to wait," he added.

The NLD group had been expected to take up their seats on April 23rd amid hopes of further progress towards greater democracy after Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein met in the capital Naypyidaw last week.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/9209159/Burma-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-threatens-to-boycott-newly-won-seats.html