By David Williams
YANGON, Myanmar
Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has told her party that the success of democracy in the country is contingent on their “landslide” victory in a general election later this year, according to local media Monday.
"When we succeed in the election, we will not bully," the Irrawaddy reported her as saying Sunday at the close of a weekend National League for Democracy (NLD) meeting.
"We will make friends with enemies as well as making our friends stand for us, with no grudge, to move forward in unity toward a democratic union. I want you all to know this."
She said the NLD’s executive committee had discussed many crucial matters, including the decision "to succeed in the election".
"It is not for my party’s success but for a democratic union and to get people their rights in full," Suu Kyi stressed.
The NLD, however, had yet to commit to running in the election that is expected in early November.
Win Myint, executive committee member, told a press conference that the party’s decision on contesting the poll would be announced when the date of the election is set by the Union Election Commission.
He underlined that the decision would not be related to whether the constitution -- which includes a clause barring Suu Kyi from presidency -- is amended to lift the ban.
"We have never said that we would join only if [the constitution allows] Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to become the president," the Irrawaddy quoted him as saying.
Under Section 59 (f), anyone with a foreign spouse or children is barred from the presidency. Suu Kyi’s late husband was British and her two sons hold British nationality. Many believe the law was specifically crafted by the army to block her from power.
The parliament is set to start a debate Tuesday one of two constitutional amendment bills submitted by a senior member of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party earlier this month.
The three-day debate will center on 59(f) and 436, which gives the military a veto in parliament.
The NLD has gathered five million signatures on a petition calling on the military to change both clauses. But observers say it is unlikely that will happen before voters go to the polls in November.
While NLD leaders continue to speak of a possible boycott, the party is widely expected to contest the election as a boycott would result in automatic deregistration, rendering political activities illegal, according to the Myanmar Times.
On Saturday, Suu Kyi said at the opening of the weekend meeting that NLD candidates would have to disclose their movable and immovable assets, and those belonging to their spouses and under their children’s names, due to "transparency".
"I want to know that a candidate is not interested in the good of themselves and their families but only for the country," she stressed.
The election has been billed by Myanmar’s reformist government -- which came to power after a 2010 election widely regarded as rigged -- as a key step toward democracy as the country emerges from five decades of military rule.
The NLD -- established Sept. 1988 after the previous military's takeover -- only gained legal registration in early 2012.
Observers believe Suu Kyi’s party is favorite to defeat the ruling USDP. The NLD boycotted the 2010 poll but participated in 2012 by-elections and won 43 of the 44 seats it contested.
