Aung San Suu Kyi confident democracy will come to Myanmar, says she’ll run in elections

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi confirmed Wednesday that she will run for parliament in upcoming elections. She said she is confident that democracy will come to the military dominated county.

Suu Kyi spoke by webcast Wednesday to the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, shortly after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Myanmar on the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in more than 50 years.

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Suu Kyi said she supports increased U.S. engagement with Myanmar’s government to encourage continued reforms that have seen it shift from five decades of direct military rule.
No date has been set for the parliamentary elections, which follow a nationwide poll in 2010. Suu Kyi’s party boycotted that vote but is now reregistering after regulations that would have prevented her running for parliament were changed.
A spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy had indicated last week she would run, and Suu Kyi addressed that point directly in her remarks to the council.
“I will certainly run for the elections when they take place,” Suu Kyi said in the webcast.