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YANGON: Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has suggested that people who want to back her disbanded party in upcoming elections refrain from voting, her lawyer said Wednesday.
Suu Kyi has heard on the news that people are asking what they should do because they would like to vote for her National League for Democracy (NLD) but the party no longer officially exists, Nyan Win said.
"She said just don't vote if people want to vote only for the NLD," he told AFP by telephone after a visit to her lakeside home on Tuesday.
"But she does not say anything about people's choice," he added.
On Tuesday Nyan Win quoted Suu Kyi as saying people should keep a close watch on the November 7 poll and speak out if the vote is not free and fair.
He withheld the latest remarks until he had discussed them with colleagues.
The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Laureate has spent most of the past 20 years in detention, and as a serving prisoner is barred from standing in the upcoming vote, which will be the military-ruled country's first in 20 years.
The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 but the ruling military never allowed it to take office.
The party is boycotting the November poll, saying the rules are unfair. As a result, it was forcibly disbanded by the ruling generals.
So far 42 political parties have been given permission to stand in the election, which has been widely condemned by activists and the West as a charade aimed at putting a civilian face on military rule.
Among them is the National Democracy Force, created by former NLD members whose decision to participate in the vote put them at odds with Suu Kyi, who was in favour of the NLD boycotting the vote.
-AFP/wk
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