National League for Democracy in Myanmar dissolves itself

Aung San Suu KyiAccording to the official reports, the National League for Democracy, the major opposition party in Myanmar, dissolved itself Friday in an apparent protest against upcoming elections.

The New York Times has reported that the party, whose best-known member is its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, refused to register to run candidates. It has criticized the elections as a sham.

It was also noted by the report that in 1990, two years after it was formed, the party won an overwhelming majority but was then barred from office by the military junta that rules the country formerly known as Burma. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spent most of the intervening time under house arrest.

U Nyan Win, a party spokesman and Suu Kyi's lawyer, said, "We are losing a battle, but losing a battle is not losing a war. We have not yet decided anything, but we are thinking of many social works we can do for the Burmese people."

He does not believe the party is shutting down, Josef Silverstein, a retired Rutgers University expert on Myanmar, told the Times.

He further said, "I think they're guessing that if they just go about their business without making a lot of noise or any kind of public demonstration, the government will allow them." (With Inputs from Agencies)