Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has publicly announced her desire to become Burma’s president. The announcement was made at the World Economic Forum in response to a BBC question. Her comments “If I pretended that I didn’t want to be president I wouldn’t be honest. And I would rather be honest with my people than otherwise” confirmed previous speculation regarding her presidential aspirations.
In the two years since her release from a 15 year long house arrest order, Aung San Suu Kyi has gained both a seat in Parliament and the chair of the National League for Democracy in Burma. However to place her bid in the 2015 presidential elections, the military drafted constitution will have to be amended to remove current stipulations prohibiting potential candidates married to foreign citizens from running.
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Advocate in Myanmar Hopes to Seek Presidency, New York Times, June 6, 2013.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi: ‘I want to run for president’, CNN, June, 6, 2013.
Suu Kyi announces bid for presidency, The Times of India, June 7, 2013.