Myanmar�s Suu Kyi begins election bid with first rally

AFP, LOIKAW, Myanmar: Thousands thronged to see Aung San Suu Kyi’s first rally yesterday as the Myanmar opposition leader launched her bid for historic November elections by touring a remote eastern region seen as a stronghold of the ruling party. Suu Kyi urged voters to think of future generations in her debut campaign speech to a rapt audience in Kayah state, many wearing the colourful traditional dress of local ethnic groups, as her party’s first nationwide election bid in a quarter of a century gathers steam.
“What kind of country will our children will grow up in? What kind of education system (will they have), what kind of healthcare system? Will they have security? We have to think about these things,” she said.
Myanmar is set to go to the polls on November 8 in what many hope will be the country’s freest elections in decades as it emerges from years of military rule.
But while the army has stepped back from outright control, handing over to a quasi-civilian government in 2011, it retains deep roots in the political system, with a quarter of the legislature ring-fenced for unelected soldiers.
Kayah is seen as a stronghold of the army-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which currently holds every seat in the state after local ethnic parties were sidelined in flawed 2010 elections also boycotted by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
The veteran democracy campaigner, whose own constituency is in the rural hamlet of Kawhmu near Yangon, has predicted her party will win a majority in the polls.
She has started her campaign by holding rallies in areas of Kayah where president’s office minister Soe Thane and chief peace negotiator Aung Min are set to fight for election as independents.

Myanmar�s Suu Kyi begins election bid with first rally

AFP, LOIKAW, Myanmar: Thousands thronged to see Aung San Suu Kyis first rally yesterday as the Myanmar opposition leader launched her bid for historic November elections by touring a remote eastern region seen as a stronghold of the ruling party. Suu Kyi urged voters to think of future generations in her debut campaign speech to a rapt audience in Kayah state, many wearing the colourful traditional dress of local ethnic groups, as her partys first nationwide election bid in a quarter of a century gathers steam. What kind of country will our children will grow up in? What kind of education system (will they have), what kind of healthcare system? Will they have security? We have to think about these things, she said. Myanmar is set to go to the polls on November 8 in what many hope will be the countrys freest elections in decades as it emerges from years of military rule. But while the army has stepped back from outright control, handing over to a quasi-civilian government in 2011, it retains deep roots in the political system, with a quarter of the legislature ring-fenced for unelected soldiers. Kayah is seen as a stronghold of the army-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which currently holds every seat in the state after local ethnic parties were sidelined in flawed 2010 elections also boycotted by Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD). The veteran democracy campaigner, whose own constituency is in the rural hamlet of Kawhmu near Yangon, has predicted her party will win a majority in the polls. She has started her campaign by holding rallies in areas of Kayah where presidents office minister Soe Thane and chief peace negotiator Aung Min are set to fight for election as independents.