Detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi believes it is too early for her party to decide whether to take part in Myanmar’s national elections this year, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Nyan Win, who is also the spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), said the Nobel Peace Laureate had told him "this is not the time to decide."
 

"Daw Suu said we cannot say at this moment whether to participate in the election [...] The main reason she gave is the lack of freedom of information," Nyan Win said, using a term of respect for Suu Kyi.
 

"Daw Suu said freedom of information, freedom of expression, free and fair elections are important needs. So no decision can be made without these things," he added.

Democracy doubtful
Myanmar's ruling junta has promised polls for this year as part of their so-called seven-step Roadmap to Democracy, but no date has yet been set and critics say the plans are simply to entrench the generals' power.
 

The elections, which analysts predict will take place in October or November, would be the first held since 1990, when the NLD won by a landslide but was never allowed to take power.
 

The government claims a new constitution, agreed in a referendum held in May 2008 in the wake of a devastating cyclone that killed up to 138,000 people in Myanmar, nullifies the result of those earlier polls.

Charter ban
The new charter bans Suu Kyi from holding elected office, while reserving a quarter of the seats in parliament for serving soldiers.
 

Suu Kyi has spent most of the last two decades under house arrest, which was extended by 18 months last August when she was held partly responsible for a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home uninvited.
 

She is currently appealing against her latest conviction.
 

Source: AFP