Suu Kyi's election application to be reviewed on Aug 21

“Aung San Suu Kyi will be free on August 21 and return to Yangon. We accepted that day to scrutinise her candidate application,” said Myat Soe, the chairman of Yangon South District Election Commission. 

The Union Election Commission announced that the candidate applications would be scrutinised from August 12 to 21.

“We will scrutinise her personal data to see if she will be allowed as a candidate in the election. Then we will put forward our findings to the regional election commission.”

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s democracy icon, won a seat in Kawhmu Township in a 2012 by-election. She has submitted the application to run in the November 8 general election as a Lower House MP for the township. Her party is expected to win landslide victory in the election.

“It is not easy to predict the country’s future. The results of this election will determine the future of the country,” Suu Kyi said on the day when she submitted the application.

The NLD has not yet announced its final list of candidates, amid a rumour that it will compete for a total of 500 seats.

At at a campaign rally in Mawlamyinegyun, Ayeyawady Region on July 26, Suu Kyi said the party would give priority to young and women candidates as well as ethnic minority candidates. 

“If qualifications are equal, priority will be given to women. Women make up half of the population, so they must have proportional power,” she said. 

The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party is set to compete for a total of 149 seats: 45 seats for the Lower House, 12 seats for the Upper House, 90 seats in regional parliaments, one Kayin seat and one Rakhine seat.

“We don’t expect to secure a landslide victory like in the 2010 election. But we hope that we will win a certain proportion of seats. We believe that the USDP can still form a government,” said Maung Maung Thein, the USDP’s general secretary.

He revealed that three union ministers, one deputy minister, six retired military officers and five directors-general will compete for seats in Yangon Region. Among them are chief of the General Staff (Army, Navy and Air) General Hla Htay Win who will run for the Upper House Yangon Region constituency No.9, while the naval chief, Admiral Thura Thet Swe, will compete in the Lower House Cocokyun constituency. 

Ohn Myint, minister for livestock, fisheries and rural development, will run for a Lower House seat in Kyauktan; minister for electric power Khin Maung Soe in Hlegu; minister for health Dr Than Aung in Lanmadaw; and deputy commerce minister Dr Pwint San in Mayangon.