Daw Aung San Suu Kyi marked the start of the campaign at the NLD's office at Oattara Thiri Township, Nay Pyi Taw, on May 27 by being the first person to sign the petition.

Members of the NLD and the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society movement, which have joined forces to campaign for amending Article 436 of the 2008 Constitution, watched as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi signed the petition.

Article 436 stipulates that a constitutional amendment requires the support of more than 75 percent of the Union parliament, giving its appointed military MPs an effective veto over charter change because they hold 25 percent of hluttaw seats.

NLD spokesperson U Nyan Win said the signing of the petition by the party's leader marked the start of an eight-week campaign to gather signatures throughout the nation.

He said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners would support the campaign by helping to collect signatures from Myanmar living abroad.

At the end of the campaign, the petition would be sent to President U Thein Sein and Tatmadaw Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, U Nyan Win said.

The start of the campaign coincided with two small, separate demonstrations at Zabuthiri Township in Nay Pyi Taw in support of retaining Article 436.

One of the protesters said people's livelihoods might suffer if Article 436 was amended.

Other protesters held placards that said amending Section 436 would lead to political instability and that amending Section 59(f) would benefit only one person.

Section 59(f) makes Daw Aung San Suu Kyi ineligible to become president. It says the presidency cannot be contested by anyone whose spouse or children are foreign citizens and the NLD leader's two sons are British citizens. Her British husband died in 1999.