Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's party saw its hopes for a political future dashed again on Friday as the country's Supreme Court brushed aside its latest appeal against dissolution.
The court in the capital Naypyidaw took only a few minutes to reject the National League for Democracy's (NLD) legal bid, according to Kyaw Hoe, a lawyer for the party.
Suu Kyi has all but exhausted her options in the courts to reinstate the party as a political entity after it was dissolved by Mynamar's ruling junta in 2010 ahead of controversial elections. But Kyaw Hoe said they could keep fighting.
“We have to decide whether we will continue the legal process...We can apply directly to the Chief Justice again according to the law. But we have to discuss with NLD senior members,” he said.
Court verdicts in the military-ruled country rarely favour opposition activists and a series of appeals by Suu Kyi against her house arrest - before it expired in November - were rejected.
Shortly after Suu Kyi's release, the Supreme Court refused to hear her lawsuit against the junta for dissolving the NLD. She had unsuccessfully filed an earlier suit with the same court aimed at preventing its abolition.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner was freed from more than seven years in detention on November 13, days after a poll in which the main junta-backed party claimed overwhelming victory, amid opposition claims of intimidation and fraud.
The NLD won a 1990 election in a landslide but the result was never recognised by the regime.
The party was disbanded in 2010 for choosing to boycott the country's first election in 20 years in response to rules that seemed designed to bar Suu Kyi from taking part. - Sapa-AFP