Ban on Suu Kyi standing for Myanmar presidency poses dilemma for party
Constitution bars her from presidency, but if followers shift focus from the pro-democracy icon they risk exposing splits within NLD
Aung San Suu Kyi's quarter-century quest to lead Myanmar is running out of time because of a legal roadblock, posing a dilemma for a party that was forged around the mystique of the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
With elections due late next year, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy may win the most seats in a national poll for the first time since 1990, when the military refused to recognise its election win and kept Myanmar in isolation for another generation. Even so, the NLD has been unsuccessful in efforts to amend a constitution that bars Suu Kyi, 69, from the presidency because her two sons are British.
Watch: Legal roadlock on Aung San Suu Kyi's way to be president
A parliamentary committee dominated by the military and the quasi-civilian government that came to power in 2010 recommended in June preserving the part of the charter dealing with the presidency. That leaves the NLD and its ageing leadership with a choice - continue pushing for Suu Kyi to lead or forge a path in which the party is no longer centred on one person, a shift that may expose internal weaknesses and dissent.
"I sense that Aung San Suu Kyi would not be happy to step aside and allow another NLD candidate to be proposed," said Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador to Thailand, Vietnam and Laos who is now on the board of Bagan Capital, a Myanmar-focused advisory firm. "The NLD is Aung San Suu Kyi's creation. Without her, the various components of the League would be likely to split and go their separate ways."