Myanmar's new election laws have barred opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from joining a political party, and thus from running in elections planned this year.
Myanmar's state-run newspapers on Wednesday published the Political Parties Registration Law, according to which more than 2,000 political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi are barred from contesting a general election.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, was convicted last August of violating the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside residence.
The date of the upcoming polls, which would be the first in Myanmar in 20 years, has yet to be announced.
The last elections in 1990 were won overwhelmingly by Suu Kyi's party, but the military refused to hand over power.
