Myanmar '88 student leader joins Suu Kyi's party to run in polls

Ko Ko Gyi – who confirmed that he would run in the election – was a leader of the 1988 protests that the military eventually crushed, and spent more than 17 years in and out of prison before being released on 2012 as part of reforms initiated by the military.

YANGON // A leader of student protests in Myanmar in 1988 that grew into a nationwide pro-democracy movement will run in a general election in November for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party.

The decision will likely to bolster the chances of Ms Suu Kyi’s party in the much-anticipated polls – the first since the end of direct military rule, as it takes on the military-backed ruling party.

“Ko Ko Gyi and some other members from the ‘88 generation students group will run in the next general election representing our party,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), said on Sunday.

Activists who took part in the 1988 protests are loosely allied in a movement known as the ‘88 generation, which has kept some distance from Ms Suu Kyi’s party even though they share many aims.

The poll comes at a critical time for the South-East Asian nation and could decide the scope of reforms.

Ko Ko Gyi – who confirmed that he would run in the election – was a leader of the 1988 protests that the military eventually crushed. He spent more than 17 years in and out of prison before being released on 2012 as part of reforms initiated by the military.

The NLD said this month that it would contest the election, even though Ms Suu Kyi is barred by the military-drafted constitution from becoming the country’s leader.

“Surely this will strengthen considerably the NLD, which has to struggle very hard to be able to lead a government after the next election,” said political analyst Yan Myo Thein.

About 90 political parties have registered to run in the election scheduled for November 8.

The NLD won Myanmar’s last free and fair election in 1990 with a landslide, but the result was ignored by the then ruling military, which ceded power in 2011.

The NLD boycotted a 2010 poll held under military rule.

On Sunday, Ms Suu Kyi invoked the memory of her assassinated father, describing upcoming elections as an opportunity to continue his legacy and bring real change to the former junta-ruled nation.

The upcoming poll will be the first general election in a quarter of a century to be contested by the NLD, which is expected to make huge gains at the ballot box if the vote is free and fair.

Ms Suu Kyi’s position as foremost opposition leader stems both from her years of dogged defiance under house arrest and her status as daughter of independence hero Aung San.

Known affectionately as “Bogyoke” – or general – Aung San led Myanmar’s battle for independence from Britain. But he was gunned down by local rivals alongside eight other independence leaders in July 1947, just months before his dream was realised.

“The NLD believes that we have a responsibility to the martyrs who were killed before they finished their duty to achieve independence. NLD has been formed to fulfil that duty,” she said in a speech to supporters marking the 68th anniversary of her father’s assassination.

* Reuters and Agence France-Presse