SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not be allowed to take part in elections proposed by the country's military leaders in 2010 because she had been married to a foreigner, the Straits Times reported on Wednesday.
Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said his Myanmarcounterpart told a regional meeting on Tuesday that the newconstitution barred Suu Kyi from the polls because of hermarriage to Briton Michael Aris, who died in 1999, and becausetheir children held foreign passports, the newspaper said.
Yeo said foreign ministers of the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN) told Myanmar's representative, Nyan Win,that the move was "not in keeping with the times".
"He was quite clear that in the new constitution, a Myanmarcitizen who has a foreign husband or who has children notcitizens of Myanmar will be disqualified, as it was in the 1974constitution," Yeo said, according to the paper.
Earlier this month, Myanmar's ruling generals announced areferendum in May on a new constitution, to be followed by anelection in 2010.
The generals last held elections in 1990, but ignored themwhen Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent more than 12 ofthe past 18 years under some form of detention.
(Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by David Fox)
