Myanmar's parliament blocks changes to constitution

[webfact]

Myanmar's parliament blocks changes to constitution

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's parliament has voted against proposed constitutional amendments, ensuring that the military's veto power remains intact and that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi cannot become president in an election this year.

The legislature ended a 3-day debate Thursday on proposed changes to the 2008 constitution.

The constitution bars Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from seeking the presidency and gives the military an effective veto over constitutional amendments. Changes to both those clauses were rejected Thursday.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy is expected to see heavy gains against the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party in the polls. The NLD swept the last free general election in 1990 but the then-ruling military junta ignored the results and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for years.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-06-25

[Jonathan Fairfield]

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