Detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s absence defines Myanmar’s junta-held polls, which activists dismiss as an attempt to overwrite her 2020 victory.
YANGON: Ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains in military detention, but her absence dominates the junta-run elections touted as a return to democracy.
The Nobel laureate’s National League for Democracy party was dissolved after its landslide 2020 victory was voided by the army.
Suu Kyi has spent around two decades under detention, much of it under house arrest at her Yangon home.
Her party’s 1990 election win was also ignored by the military, which refused to relinquish power.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while detained, having refused an offer of freedom in exchange for permanent exile.
The military eventually granted her freedom in 2010, days after an election her party boycotted.
Her movement’s 2015 election victory prompted jubilant celebrations and a wave of optimism.
However, her international reputation was severely tarnished by her government’s handling of the Rohingya crisis.
She defended Myanmar against genocide charges at the UN’s top court in 2019, siding with the military.
The army seized power again in 2021, claiming fraud marred the 2020 poll her party won.
Activists have since risen up, first as protesters and now as guerrilla rebels in a civil war.
For her followers in Myanmar, Suu Kyi’s name remains synonymous with democracy.
Her absence from the ballot is seen as proof the upcoming vote will be neither free nor fair.
