US President Barack Obama today urged Myanmar to hold “free, fair and inclusive” elections as he threw his weight behind a bid by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to change a constitution that bars her from the presidency.
Obama held talks with fellow Nobel laureate Suu Kyi at her lakeside villa in Myanmar´s commercial capital Yangon, after arriving from the capital Naypyidaw where he discussed the nation´s troubled reform process with President Thein Sein.
Speaking at a joint press conference he warned Myanmar´s reforms since shedding outright military rule in 2011 were by “no means complete or irreversible” and called for “free, fair and inclusive” elections in the nation, where Suu Kyi and her party are set to contest crucial polls next year.
Suu Kyi, who has publicly stated her desire to be president, is barred from the top office by a constitutional clause ruling out anyone with foreign spouse or children from the presidency.
Her late husband and two sons are British and the democracy champion is seeking an amendment.
