A general election to be held in Myanmar this year — the first in 20 years — will be far from free and just. The election laws promulgated in March do not allow prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 supporters to take part in the election.
The 2008 constitution prohibits electoral participation of those married to foreign nationals. Ms. Suu Kyi, whose late husband was a Briton, falls into this category. Furthermore, the election laws ban convicted people from organizing or taking part in a political party and from running either in a Lower or Upper House election. Ms. Suu Kyi falls into this category, too. She was sentenced to three years in prison in August for violating terms of her house arrest by letting an uninvited American stay at her home. The sentence was quickly commuted to 18 months' house arrest.
For Myanmar's largest opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to take part in the election, it must expel Ms. Suu Kyi from it and newly register itself as a political party by May 7. This difficulty forced the NLD to choose not to register and decide to boycott the election, ending its 22-year history.