Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says if her party wins Burma’s upcoming general election, she will lead the country from behind the scenes – sidestepping a clause in the Constitution that bars her from the presidency.
If the November 8 vote is credible, most observers believe ~Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party will win the most seats in the country’s Parliament and could even control a majority by forming a coalition with smaller parties.
“I’ve made it quite clear that if the NLD wins the elections and we form a government, I’m going to be the leader of that government whether or not I’m the president,” Suu Kyi, 70, told Indian television channel India Today TV in an interview.
A clause in the 2008 Constitution, drafted when the country was under military rule, says anyone whose spouse or children have foreign citizenship cannot hold the president’s office. This prevents Suu Kyi from taking the job because her late husband and two children are British nationals.
The clause was widely perceived as tailor-made to block Suu Kyi and an insurmountable hurdle for her. But her comments showed her clear determination to get around it and will also give renewed boost to hopes for a more democratic Burma, also known as Myanmar.
Asked how she could be the leader without being the president, Suu Kyi replied with a smile: “Why not? Do you have to be a president in order to lead a country? The leader of the NLD government will have to be me because I am the leader of my party.”
Do you have to be a president in order to lead a country?
There are no obvious alternatives within her party’s ranks.
Burma, a predominantly Buddhist nation, began moving from half a century of military rule towards democracy in 2011. Though there are many concerns – including the exclusion of ethnic Rohingya Muslims from the process and irregularities in voting lists – most observers believe next month’s elections are the country’s best chance in decades for relatively free and credible polls.
Under the Constitution, however, the military will hold 25 per cent of the seats in Parliament regardless of the outcome. It also will retain control of all portfolios related to national security. So, for the NLD to be in power, it would have to win 67 per cent of the seats – either by itself or in a coalition – to have a simple majority in Parliament.
Suu Kyi said the Constitution needed to be amended to change the military’s seat allotment – a comment she acknowledged was likely to anger the still-powerful military.
Suu Kyi was under house arrest during the 1990 election that was won by her party, but the military annulled the results and refused to hand over power. The following year, she won the Nobel Peace Prize, but the junta confined her to her home for much of the next 20 years.
She has plans for reforming the Constitution, including the clause that bars her from seeking the presidency, but would not elaborate.
The general election will be followed by a presidential election early next year when the army and the elected members of parliament nominate a total of three candidates, and then all MPs vote to elect the president.