The Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of her party are delaying their parliamentary debut Monday as they seek to resolve a problem concerning the wording of the oath that lawmakers have to take.

Suu Kyi and 42 other candidates from her party, the National League for Democracy, won seats in by-elections on April 1, a result welcomed by countries like the United States and Britain as a sign of progress toward democracy in Myanmar after decades of repressive military rule.

Following the elections, Suu Kyi and other newly elected opposition members were invited to attend the session of parliament this week in the capital of Naypidaw.

But they have requested that the wording of the swearing-in oath that lawmakers have to take be changed. The NLD asked the authorities to adjust the wording of the oath to say that parliamentarians will "abide by" the constitution rather than "protect" it.

"We want to change that constitution because it's not a democratic constitution," Ohn Kyaing, a spokesman for the NLD, said Sunday.

The constitution currently assigns 25% of parliamentary seats to unelected members of the military establishment.

Tin Oo, a senior NLD official, said that he believed the parliament would consider the issue Monday and that it could be decided upon this week.