|
 Suu Kyi's remarks could complicate her already fraught relations
with Myanmar's military, which drafted the 2008 constitution to
preserve its power and effectively exclude her from leading the
country.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party is the frontrunner in
the first general election since a semi-civilian government took
power in 2011 after nearly 50 years of military dictatorship.
"If we win, and the NLD forms a government, I will be above the
president. It's a very simple message," a relaxed and smiling Suu
Kyi told reporters at her lakeside home in Yangon, Myanmar's largest
city.
When asked if this arrangement violated the constitution, Suu Kyi
replied: "No. The constitution says nothing about somebody being
above the president."
The constitution however states that the president "takes precedence
over all other persons" in Myanmar.
Suu Kyi's remarks were rebutted by Zaw Htay, a senior official at
the President's Office, who told Reuters that her comments were,
"against the constitutional provision."
 The constitution also reserves a quarter of all parliamentary seats
for the military and bars presidential candidates with foreign
spouses or children. Suu Kyi had two sons with a late British
academic.
"While the constitution is far from perfect, and understandably
perceived as a flawed document, it still serves as the basis for
Myanmar's current political system, including the elections this
weekend," said Nyantha Maw Lin, managing director at political
consultancy Vriens & Partners in Yangon.
Suu Kyi said the NLD had already chosen someone who was prepared to
act as president, but would not say who it was.
According to speculation in Myanmar's media, likely candidates
include the speaker of lower house, an aging NLD party patron and
even Suu Kyi's personal physician.
Suu Kyi said reports of fraud, intimidation and irregularities in
advance voting had marred what many people hope will be Myanmar's
first credible election since 1990, which the NLD won by a
landslide.
The military annulled the result and kept Suu Kyi in detention or
under house arrest for most of next 20 years.
"TOTALLY ILLEGAL"
International election monitors said on Thursday they were still
negotiating access to observe advance voting on military
installations.
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"It seems there is not clear rejection but they are also not clearly
allowing us," Ichal Supriadi of the Asia Network for Free Elections
(ANFREL), told Reuters by phone on Thursday.
Myanmar's army forces chief General Min Aung Hlaing had granted
European Union (EU) observers access to advance voting in military
installations, but the details were still being "hammered out," EU
chief observer Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told reporters on Thursday.
"We will see exactly how it's going to play out once the details are
decided," he said.
Suu Kyi said the NLD had collected reports of advanced voting
"carried out in a totally illegal way."
The long gap between the election on Sunday and the new government
taking power next February was also "a cause for concern," she said.
In a video at the start of her two-month campaign, she the
international community to be vigilant during this transition
period, which she said was almost as important as a free and fair
election.
Analysts have warned of a possible rise in post-election tensions,
particularly over the choice of president.
The political activity of the radical Buddhist group Ma Ba Tha,
which sharply criticized the NLD for opposing laws seen as
anti-Muslim, was unconstitutional, Suu Kyi said.
Suu Kyu said that the plight of the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim
minority living in the western state of Rakhine, should not be
exaggerated when "our whole country is in a dramatic situation."
She has been widely criticized for not speaking out enough on the
Rohingya, thousands of whom are interned in squalid camps.
(Additional reporting by Aubrey Belford in Yangon; Editing by Raju
Gopalakrishnan and Rachel Armstrong)
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