Myanmar's Suu Kyi courts minority vote in war-torn Kachin

Aung San Suu Kyi today told voters in war-torn Kachin state that her opposition party represents the "whole" of Myanmar and not just the majority ethnic group, as she courts the crucial minority vote ahead of November's landmark polls.
Hundreds of ethnic Kachin people cheered as Suu Kyi addressed the crowd on the outskirts of Winemaw town, near the state capital Myitkyina, as the National League for Democracy (NLD) steps-up its campaign for the first countrywide election it has contested in 25 years.
"The NLD does not represent any one ethnic group, including the (majority) Bamar ethnic group. We represent the whole union," she told voters in the former junta-run nation where minorities make up around a third of the 51-million population.

Kachin, together with Myanmar's six other minority- dominated states, has become a key election battleground as ethnic parties are expected to make strong gains in the November 8 polls.
Suu Kyi has been criticised for failing to build alliances with these groups and today the NLD was trying to woo minority voters in an election the party is tipped to win if free and fair.
"If you want change, please vote for the NLD," she urged the crowd.

Their restive state has seen around 100,000 people displaced since fighting reignited between the Myanmar military and ethnic rebels from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in 2011.

Unsurprisingly the issue of self-administration was one of the first raised in questions from the crowd to the Nobel Laureate and it's one she avoided answering directly.
An NLD government would introduce the "system that people want, with their support and cooperation", the 70-year-old said carefully.
Myanmar's elections are seen as a crucial test of democratic progress in a nation that only emerged in 2011 from half a century of military rule.
But despite the raft of political and economic reforms launched under President Thein Sein's quasi-civilian government, Myanmar is still beset by bitter conflicts for greater autonomy in its remote ethnic pockets.

Many of these regions have been fighting since the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1948, and securing a countrywide ceasefire deal before the polls has been at the heart of Naypyidaw's reform drive.