Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi looks out from a vehicle as she leaves the Yangon southern district court after she submitted her application to run as a candidate in the upcoming 2020 general election in Yangon on August 4, 2020. (SAI AUNG MAIN / AFP)
YANGON - Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday formally declared her intention to seek a second term in an election in November that is seen as a test of the Southeast Asian nation’s tentative democratic reforms.
After decades of military rule, Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for democracy, took the reins in 2016 after an electoral landslide, but has been forced to share power with the generals
After decades of military rule, Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for democracy, took the reins in 2016 after an electoral landslide, but has been forced to share power with the generals.
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Her international reputation slumped over the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar but she remains popular at home.
On Tuesday, Suu Kyi, 75, waved to a crowd of around 50 supporters on the outskirts of the former capital Yangon to submit an application to run as a candidate.
Some of her supporters wore red-coloured face masks denoting their backing for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and shouted: “Mother Suu, be healthy.”
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In 2017, violence in Myanmar resulted in more than 730,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border to Bangladesh, where they took shelter in refugee camps.
On the domestic front, Suu Kyi’s administration has had faltering peace talks with ethnic armed groups in various parts of the country, while a struggling economy faces new pressure from the cororavirus pandemic.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is dominated by the military and retired civil servants, will be the NLD’s main opponent.
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