THE ASIAN COUNTRY of Myanmar has told nearby nations that it may release detained pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi after the country holds elections next month, it is reported.

The country’s foreign minister Nyan Win told counterparts at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) yesterday that Suu Kyi, the general secretary of the former National League for Democracy, might be freed from house arrest after polls are held on November 7.

The comments reportedly came after neighbouring countries took the country to task over the elections, which have been widely discredited before they even take place. Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa said yesterday it believed it was not too late, however, to repair the “credibility deficit”.

“Our understanding is that once the present term of her sentence has expired, once she has served her sentence, then that would be it. And that notion was not disputed,” he told AP.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo told South Africa’s Mail & Guardian that he had he tackled Nyan Win on his country’stendency to release Suu Kyi, only to produce new charges that have her quickly returned to detention.

“No, I’m not satisfied,” he said when asked whether he accepted the minister’s statement that Suu Kyi may be freed.

Suu Kyi was the leader of her party in the run-up to the 1990 elections in the country, then known as Burma, and won 59% of the vote – equating to 80% of the seats in parliament – but was unable to take her seat having been placed under house arrest in the weeks up to the election by the ruling military junta, which then annulled the results of the election.

While the junta has remained in power ever since, Suu Kyi – who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize as well as a slew of other recognitions – has remainder under house arrest in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) for 15 of the 21 intervening years.

Her party was declared illegal and disbanded earlier this year, after it failed to declare any candidates for next month’s elections, boycotting them in protest at their perceived lack of credibility.

Suu Kyi is barred, under the country’s latest constitution, from taking part in any future elections because she was married to a non-national, though her British husband died in 1999.