NAYPYITAW, Myanmar, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Aung San Suu Kyi, the most prominent political dissident in Myanmar, officially registered her political party Friday, allowing it to contest elections.
Suu Kyi visited the capital, Naypyitaw, and met legislative leaders, The Daily Telegraph reported. Her party, the National League for Democracy, now has official standing.
A winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Suu Kyi has spent much of the last two decades under house arrest, although she has been free for the past year.
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been ruled by the military since 1962 and by the current junta since 1988. The NLD won a parliamentary majority in the last free election in 1990.
The government has eased up on dissent in recent months. That has included abandoning plans to construct a huge hydroelectric plant on the Irrawaddy River that would have been built by China mostly to supply power to China.
Suu Kyi held meetings with Shwe Mann, the speaker of the lower house, and Khin Aung Myint, the upper house speaker. Mann, an advocate of political reform, said afterwards the government needs to work with the opposition.
"We wanted this to happen a long time ago and we welcome her," Myint said.
