Просмотр исходного текста страницы Myanmar s Suu Kyi Faces President s Allies In Campaign Showdown

By Antoni Slodkowski<br><br>YANGON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will take her campaign straight to the camp of a close presidential ally on Thursday as she tours the country ahead of Myanmar's first general election since the end of military rule.<br><br>Suu Kyi will visit three towns in Kayah, a sparsely populated, landlocked state on the Thai border, where powerful Minister of the President's Office Soe Thein, the architect of President Thein Sein's economic reforms, is running for a parliamentary seat.<br><br>Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) is expected to win the election, which marks a major shift in Myanmar's political landscape, giving a platform to democratic activists shut out of public life during nearly half a century of strict military rule that ended in 2011.<br><br>The election is poised to be the country's freest and fairest since 1990 when the NLD won in a rout, only for the junta not to recognise the result. Campaigning officially started on Tuesday.<br><br>"Unlike Rakhine, Shan and Chin states, there are no well-established local ethnic parties in Kayah," said Sithu Aung Myint, an independent political analyst. "The constituencies here are rather small and the NLD has a good chance to sweep to victory."<br><br>Suu Kyi is to give two speeches close to Loikaw, the state capital, in the afternoon, and a third one in Bawlakhe, Soe Thein's constituency, in the evening.<br><br>The NLD's headquarters in Loikaw were abuzz as staff readied banners, hoisted the party flag and polished bronze statues of Suu Kyi and her father, [https://indochinatours.asia/myanmar-package-tours/ myanmar burma] national hero General Aung San, ahead of the visit.<br><br>"She is coming here just to support our candidates, because it looks like we are weaker than the rivals," Thaung Htay, 56, a member of the Loikaw NLD chapter, told Reuters.<br><br>Soe Thein, who is running for an upper house seat as an independent, is one of the top presidential acolytes and most powerful people in [https://indochinatours.asia/myanmar-package-tours/ myanmar burma].<br><br>He was excluded from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party's (USDP) candidate lists in July by then-chairman of the party Shwe Mann. Some experts say this contributed to Shwe Mann's ouster from party leadership in a dramatic shake-up of [https://www.myanmartour.com myanmar tour packages]'s political establishment last month.<br><br>Shwe Mann was removed from his post in a middle-of-the-night drama after trucks with armed police cordoned off the USDP compound in the capital Naypyitaw.<br><br>Thein Sein on Wednesday made his first public appearance since the start of the campaign, meeting leaders of ethnic minority guerrilla groups for ceasefire talks in the capital Naypyitaw.<br><br>The election will determine representatives of the bicameral parliament and regional chambers for five-year terms.<br><br>The upper and lower houses will both [http://www.travelwitheaseblog.com/?s=nominate nominate] a presidential candidate, who must secure the support of a majority of members. The military - which under the junta-drafted constitution holds a quarter of the seats - will nominate a third.<br><br>Parliament will then vote on which of the three candidates will be president and the president will form the government.<br><br>The constitution bars Suu Kyi from becoming president, regardless of the outcome, because she has British children. It also gives the army a veto over constitutional change. (Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun and Hnin Yadana Zaw; Editing by Nick Macfie)