MYANMAR’S opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi declared yesterday she would be “above the president” if her party wins Sunday’s election.

Ms Suu Kyi said that a constitutional rule barring her from the presidency would not stop her from ruling the country.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) leader made her comments to hundreds of reporters gathered for a press conference outside her lakeside villa in Yangon.

When pressed for an explanation, she said: “It’s a very simple message” — another party member would hold office but “I’ll make all the proper and important decisions.

“I’ll be above the president,” she insisted, appearing bemused. “I’ll run the government.”

The daughter of late Communist Party of Burma founder and independence leader Aung San is banned from serving as president by the 2008 constitution, which disqualifies those with foreign spouses or children. Ms Suu Kyi is the widow of British historian Michael Aris.

But she claimed: “The constitution says nothing about being ‘above the president’.”

The NLD is the main rival to President Thein Sein’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which represents the military junta that has ruled Myanmar since 1962.

The constitution also automatically grants the armed forces 25 per cent of seats in parliament and the key security portfolios.

While predicting victory and personal power for herself, Ms Suu Kyi attempted to discredit the electoral process before polling stations had even opened.

She claimed that the election campaign had been seriously flawed and said she hoped the international community would not be hasty to declare it free and fair.

Ms Suu Kyi said the Union Election Commission had ignored repeated complaints about irregularities in advance voting, the illegal use of religion by her political opponents and the disenfranchisement of migrant workers.

But she said nothing about the country’s population of up to 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims who are classed as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, denied citizenship and suffer persecution by Buddhist chauvinists.

When one reporter repeated claims that the Rohingya are facing genocide, Ms Suu Kyi said: “I think it’s very important that we should not exaggerate problems in the country.

“We have to make big problems small and small problems disappear.”