Myanmar authorities on Tuesday gave the green light to Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition to rejoin mainstream politics, setting the scene for the Nobel laureate to run for a seat in the new parliament.
The announcement in state media follows a series of reformist moves by a new
military-backed government dominated by former generals, who are now reaching out to political opponents and the West.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) was stripped of its status as a legal political party by the junta last year after it chose to boycott a rare election, saying the rules were unfair.
A brief announcement in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Tuesday said that the country’s election commission had approved the NLD’s application to re-register as a political party.
The country has surprised even its critics over the past year, releasing Suu Kyi from years of house arrest, holding dialogue with the opposition and freeing some political prisoners.
In one of a number of dramatic developments, Suu Kyi has said she will take part in by-elections expected early next year, although no date has been set. Suu Kyi’s party won a 1990 poll but was never allowed by the generals to take power.