Suu Kyi seeks talks as junta warns against poll challenge

Published on Tuesday 16 November 2010 15:02

BURMA'S military government yesterday warned against filing complaints over the 7 November election - a move that could spell trouble for newly-freed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has vowed to probe alleged voting irregularities.

The warning puts her on a possible collision course with the ruling generals, just days after her release from more than seven years of house arrest. The 65-year-old Nobel Peace laureate must balance the expectations of the country's pro-democracy movement with the reality that her freedom could be withdrawn any time by the junta.

Ms Suu Kyi, meanwhile, filed an affadavit with the country's high court to have her political party - the National League for Democracy - reinstated. The junta disbanded it for boycotting the election.

Meanwhile, the official Union Election Commission warned that any politician making fraudulent complaints about the recent polls would face a fine and three years in jail.

Full results from this month's elections have yet to be released, but figures so far give the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party a solid majority. Critics claim the vote was rigged.

Ms Suu Kyi has already announced her intention to join party colleagues in an investigation of alleged electoral fraud. She told reporters, however, that while her party plans to issue a report, it has no plans to protest against the result as it didn't take part in the election.

She has also said she would like to talk to junta leader Senior General Than Shwe, to whom she has not spoken since 2002.

"We have got to be able to talk to each other,"she said.

"I think, firstly, we have to start talking affably - real genuine talks, not just have some more tea or this or that."