Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Tuesday that she is going to run for a position in the country’s parliament.
Suu Kyi, the 66-year-old leader of the opposition National League for Democracy who spent 15 years under house arrest, will compete for a seat in Kawhmu Township near Rangoon, where she is from, according to The Associated Press. The parliamentary elections will be held in April.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner was still under house arrest during the November 2010 elections, which saw the ruling military junta government replaced by a civilian one. Her NLD party boycotted the elections because she could not participate.
The confirmation comes just a week after she told the BBC in an interview that she expected Burma (also called Myanmar) to have “full democratic elections in [her] lifetime” and expressed support for President Thein Sein, an ex-general, who took office early last year.
Over the past several months, Burma has released hundreds of prisoners but Suu Kyi and other opposition activists contend not enough of those released are political prisoners. Activists estimate that between 500 and 1,500 political prisoners remain behind bars.
