Myanmar parliament will consider allowing Suu Kyi to run for presidency
PUBLISHED : Friday, 31 October, 2014, 10:27am
UPDATED : Saturday, 01 November, 2014, 8:26am
Agence France-Presse in Naypyidaw
Suu Kyi greets army chief Min Aung Hlaing as parliamentary speaker Thura Shwe Mann looks on. Photo: EPA
Myanmar's parliament will consider amending the country's constitution - which currently bars opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president - ahead of crucial elections next year, an official said.
Suu Kyi is trying to change key sections of Myanmar's charter ahead of 2015 polls that are widely expected to be won by her National League for Democracy, if they are free and fair, after decades of disastrous military rule.
The move to moot constitutional reform was discussed during unprecedented talks between President Thein Sein and his political rivals, including Suu Kyi, as well as top army brass and election officials.
"They agreed to discuss the issue of amending the constitution in parliament, according to the law," presidential spokesman Ye Htut said after the meeting in the capital Naypyidaw.
The NLD has focused on altering a provision in the constitution that ensures the military has a veto on any amendment to the 2008 charter.
It believes revising the clause will open the way for further changes to other constitutional provisions, including the ring-fenced proportion of soldiers in parliament and the effective bar on Suu Kyi becoming president.
As it stands, she is ineligible because of a clause in the charter blocking anyone whose spouse or children are overseas citizens from leading the country. The Nobel laureate's late husband was British, as are her two sons.
Myanmar President Thein Sein shakes hands with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the Presidential Palace in Naypyidaw on Friday. Photo: AP
To alter the constitution there needs to be support from a 75 per cent majority in parliament, and as unelected soldiers make up a quarter of the legislature they have the last say on any changes.
Suu Kyi, 69, downplayed the outcome of the meeting. "I do not know how they stated the meeting was a success," she said.
The discussions came a day after US President Barack Obama spoke to Thein Sein and Suu Kyi about the elections, seen as a key test of democratic reforms under the quasi-civilian government.
Obama "underscored the need for an inclusive and credible process for conducting the 2015 elections", said the White House in a statement.
Myanmar's previous general election in 2010 was marred by widespread claims of cheating and held without Suu Kyi - who was kept under lock and key until days after the vote - or her party.
The polls were held after the military relinquished its outright control of the government, after decades of misrule in which it turned Myanmar into a diplomatic pariah and drove the economy into the ground.
In 2012 by-elections, the NLD won almost every seat available and Suu Kyi, who spent more than a decade under house arrest during the junta years, became an MP for the first time.
Myanmar has promised the vote will be the freest in the country's modern history after the military ceded direct power to a quasi-civilian government three years ago and launched a dramatic set of reforms.
But the country still faces many challenges - including an opaque legal system, creaking infrastructure and significant poverty - that will need to be tackled.
