FILE: Myanmar will hold its first parliamentary elections in two decades on November 7

Record ID: 722197

  • Title: FILE: Myanmar will hold its first parliamentary elections in two decades on November 7
  • Date: 14th August 2010
  • Summary: YANGON, MYANMAR (FILE - SEPTEMBER 2007) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1GO1KEBDL9AS9TY9M5LXWX3LH
  • Story Text: Myanmar will hold its first parliamentary elections in two decades on November 7, state media said on Friday (August 13), ending speculation over the timing of a poll criticised by rights groups as a sham to entrench military power.
    The United States, Britain and human rights groups have said the elections would be illegitimate if the military junta denies a role to thousands of political opponents now in prison, including detained Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
    The election takes place about a week before Suu Kyi is expected to be freed from house arrest on November 13.
    Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention.
    Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won by a landslide in the last elections in 1990 only to be denied power by the military, has refused to register with the authorities in protest at what it called "unjust" election laws.
    The NLD party was dissolved this year after deciding not to register for the polls.
    In September 2007, street protests against the junta erupted into violence, with the military government clamping down on protesters killings dozens, including a Japanese journalist.
    In a rare public appearance state television showed pictures of Suu Kyi meeting U.N. special envoy on Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari in March 2007.
    Forty parties have registered to take part in the first civilian government in almost half a century in the reclusive, army-ruled country of 48 million people. But several big parties said the election timing undermined their ability to raise funds.
    Many diplomats and analysts see the polls as intended to strengthen the military's power under the guise of civilian rule in an attempt to lure investment to the resource-rich country located strategically between booming China and India.
    A dozen parties registered with the election commission are believed to be proxies of the military, which will retain control of key ministries and enjoy a 25 percent quota of parliamentary seats under a new constitution.
    There are no indications an estimated 2,000 political prisoners will be released before or after the elections.
    The National Democratic Force (NDF), a renegade faction of the NLD opposed by Suu Kyi, is running to challenge the junta's proxies.
    The Union Democracy Party (UDP), another major opposition party, has threatened to withdraw from the elections if there are signs of foul play by the ruling military in the run-up to the polls.
    Only eleven of 40 registered parties have submitted lists of candidates, according to the Election Commission.
    Some parties accuse the regime's military intelligence unit of spying on and trying to intimidate their members.
    Political analysts and diplomats, however, say the election could mark a turning point which, over the longer term, delivers a gradual transition of power to a civilian government free of military control.
    They add that this would be an evolutionary process rather than a junta-inspired shift.
    The 1990 elections were held after Saw Maung had taken power after months of unrest had brought down the 26-year-old rule of General Ne Win. Several thousand people were shot in the streets in the takeover and in earlier attempts by the government crush the popular uprising.
    Many of the country's 85,000 students fled to jungle areas near the border with Thailand and joined ethnic rebel minorities engaged in a protracted struggle against the military regime.
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