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The Nobel Peace Prize winner is standing in 1st
April by-elections seen as a major test of the regime's reform
credentials following a surprising series of conciliatory gestures by
the new nominally civilian government.
The
pro-democracy icon, released from a long stretch of house arrest in
late 2010, submitted her registration to stand in a rural constituency
in Kawhmu near Yangon, an area devastated by Cyclone Nargis in 2008.
"Aung
San Suu Kyi was the first member of the NLD to register. She's going to
run for the lower house," a senior party official, Win Htein, said.
The
66-year-old's National League for Democracy (NLD) party has already
been given approval to return to the official political arena, against a
backdrop of budding reforms including dialogue between the regime and
the opposition.
The
NLD was stripped of its status as a legal political party in 2010 after
it chose to boycott a controversial national election held in November
of that year, saying the rules were unfair.
That
vote, in which the military's allies claimed an overwhelming victory,
was marred by complaints of cheating and criticised by Western nations
which enforce sanctions against the regime.
A
quarter of parliament's seats are taken up by unelected military
officials while the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which
is packed with former military men, holds about 80 per cent of the
remainder.
Suu Kyi was released a few days after the 2010 poll, having spent much of the past two decades in detention.
Since
coming to power in March, the new military-backed government dominated
by former generals has made a series of reformist moves in an apparent
attempt to reach out to political opponents and the West.
These
included releasing hundreds of political prisoners, holding dialogue
with the opposition, suspending construction of an unpopular mega-dam
and pursuing peace deals with armed ethnic minority rebels.
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