Detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s absence defines Myanmar’s junta-controlled polls, as her constituency votes in a heavily restricted process
YANGON: Ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains in military detention, but her absence dominates the junta-run elections being promoted as a democratic return.
The Nobel laureate’s National League for Democracy party won a landslide in 2020 before the military annulled the vote, dissolved the party, and jailed her.
As Suu Kyi disappeared, a civil war erupted with activists first protesting and then taking up arms against the military.
The second phase of the junta’s three-part election began on Sunday, with parties approved by the military contesting her former constituency of Kawhmu.
For her supporters, Suu Kyi’s name remains synonymous with democracy, and her exclusion from the ballot signals the vote’s lack of fairness.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s armed forces founder, spent much of her life under house arrest after leading the democracy movement from 1988.
Her party won elections in 1990, but the military refused to cede power, leading to her detention for about 15 of the next 20 years.
She was freed in 2010 and her movement swept the 2015 polls, ushering in a period of international engagement and public optimism.
Her international reputation suffered severely due to her government’s handling of the 2017 Rohingya crisis.
Suu Kyi defended Myanmar against genocide charges at the UN’s top court in 2019, further damaging her global standing.
The military seized power again after the 2020 election, claiming widespread fraud, and has held her in seclusion since.