Junta's new election law bars Suu Kyi from poll

AFP - Myanmar opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi faces exclusion from her own party and is barred from standing in polls this year under the military junta's new election laws unveiled Wednesday.
   
In a move branded "disappointing and regrettable" by the United States, the regime said in a law printed for the first time in state newspapers that anyone serving a prison term cannot be a member of a political party.
   
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) -- which won Myanmar's last elections

"The justa fears Suu Kyi's capacity to rally the population" France 24 correspondent Cyril Payen speaks to an opposition Buddhist monk in Rangoon.

in 1990 but was stopped from taking power by the junta -- would in turn be abolished if it failed to obey the rules.
   
The Nobel Peace laureate was sentenced to three years' jail in August over an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home. Suu Kyi's 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, using a respectful form of address to refer to Suu Kyi.
   
"I was extremely surprised when I saw this, I did not think it would be so bad."
   
The Political Parties Registration Act also gives the NLD just 60 days from Monday, when the law was enacted, to register as a party if it wants to take part in the elections, or else face dissolution.
   
The NLD has yet to announce whether it will take part in the polls promised by the junta, which are expected in October or November although the government has still not set a date.
   
"The NLD also needs to reply clearly but I cannot say how we will respond," Nyan Win said.
   
Critics have dismissed the polls as a sham aimed at legitimising the military's nearly five-decade grip on power and giving the appearance of democratic reform in the face of international sanctions.
   
The 64-year-old Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since the previous elections.
   
She was already barred from standing as a candidate under a new constitution approved in a 2008 referendum which stipulates that those married to foreigners are ineligible. Her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999.
   
The constitution reserves a quarter of all parliamentary seats for the military.
   
"What I can say now is the law is meant to safeguard the constitution. It will be a very big problem for us as they asked us to obey a constitution that we cannot accept," Nyan Win added.
   
A senior NLD official speaking on condition of anonymity said the party was expected to register anyway, noting that Suu Kyi was not officially a member for the 1990 elections either.
   
"I think no party members want to dissolve the party because of this law," the official said.
   
The new law effectively also prevents more than 2,100 political prisoners from taking part in the elections.
   
It bars people from any religious order -- including Buddhist monks -- and members of the civil service from standing. Monks led mass protests in 2007, which the regime suppressed with the loss of at least 31 lives.
   
The act is the second of five laws to have been enacted on Monday ahead of the polls.
   
The first law, details of which were revealed Tuesday, stipulates that the regime itself will hand-pick members of the electoral commission.
   
The United States expressed concerns over the new laws and reiterated calls for Suu Kyi's release.
   
"We would like to see steps taken by the government to encourage domestic dialogue in anticipation and in advance of the elections," US regional envoy Kurt Campbell said in Malaysia, as part of a tour of Southeast Asia.
   
"I think it would be fair to say what we have seen so far is disappointing and regrettable," Campbell said.
   
Aung Din from the US Campaign for Burma, which uses Myanmar's former name, urged worldwide action in response to the new laws.
   
"Now, the ball is in the court of the United Nations, United States, and the international community, who have been repeatedly calling for the regime to make an inclusive, free and fair election," said Aung Din.