YANGON: Myanmar
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other newly elected members of
her party plan to boycott parliament next week over a row about the
constitutional oath, a party spokesman said on Friday.
It is the
first sign of serious discord between Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy (NLD) and the reformist regime since April 1 by-elections that
gave the former political prisoner her first-ever seat in parliament.
The
NLD's announcement came after the authorities rejected its appeal to
change the wording of the swearing-in oath from "safeguard" to "respect"
the constitution, which was drawn up by the country's former military
rulers.
The NLD will write to the presidential office to ask the
authorities to reconsider, but a resolution to the row is unlikely in
time for the opening of parliament on Monday, said party spokesman Nyan
Win.
"As today is the 20th, I don't see any possibility to go in time," he told reporters at the party headquarters.
President Thein Sein is currently on a visit to Japan.
Myanmar,
which languished for decades under a repressive junta, has announced a
series of reforms since a controversial 2010 election brought a civilian
government to power -- albeit one with close links to the military.
The
regime has freed hundreds of political prisoners, welcomed Suu Kyi's
party back into mainstream politics and signed tentative peace deals
with a number of rebel groups, although fighting still rages in the far
north.
Suu Kyi, who spent much of the past two decades locked up
by the former junta, has been invited along with the other
parliamentarians to take up her seat in the lower house on Monday after
her party's decisive by-election win.
Observers say the regime
needs Suu Kyi in parliament to bolster the legitimacy of its political
system and spur an easing of Western sanctions.
The Nobel Peace
Prize winner has said one of her priorities will be to push for an
amendment of the 2008 constitution, under which one quarter of the seats
in parliament are reserved for unelected military officials.
The
NLD secured 43 of the 44 seats it contested in this month's elections,
becoming the main opposition force in a national parliament that remains
dominated by the military and its political allies.
The vote was
largely praised as a step towards democracy by the international
community, and Western nations are beginning to lift or suspend
sanctions on Myanmar to encourage reforms.
European Union
diplomats told AFP on Thursday that the 27-nation bloc had reached an
agreement in principle to suspend all sanctions against the country
formerly known as Burma, except for an arms embargo, for a year.
The
announcement came days after Suu Kyi and British Prime Minister David
Cameron issued a joint call for the suspension of the measures after
landmark talks in Yangon.
On Wednesday, the NLD said Suu Kyi planned to visit Britain and Norway as part of her first trip outside Myanmar in 24 years.
- AFP/wm
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