Burmese junta sets voting dates

[[R_H]]

BBC

Burma will hold a constitutional referendum in May and general elections in 2010, the country's military junta has announced on state media.

The regime had set out what it called a roadmap for democracy but had not previously given any firm timetable.

The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) called the announcement "vague, incomplete and strange".

Burma, under military rule since 1962, saw rare nationwide protests against the junta in August and September.

The military responded with a deadly crackdown in which at least 31 people were killed, according to the UN. Saturday's statement from the military leadership, broadcast on radio and television, announced: "Multi-party democratic elections will be held in 2010, according to the new constitution.

"It is suitable to change the military administration to a democratic, civil administrative system, as good fundamentals have been established.

"The country's basic infrastructure has been built, although there is still more to do in striving for the welfare of the nation."

NLD spokesman Nyan Win expressed surprise that the election had been planned before the results of the constitutional referendum were known.

"According to my understanding, the election date should be set up after the referendum results. I was surprised that they announced an election date without knowing the referendum results," he told the BBC.

The proposed constitutional changes have not been made public, but some suspect that they would in effect bar NLD leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi from office and perhaps ensure that a military leader was chosen.

Election results ignored

Burma held a multi-party election in 1990, two years after thousands were killed in a crackdown on popular demonstrations.

The NLD won the poll, but the military ignored the result and Ms Suu Kyi has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest in Burma's commercial capital, Rangoon.

Instead, the military formed a convention in 1993 that spent the next 14 years setting out guidelines for a new constitution.

Saturday's statement said the constitution, which is now being drafted by a government-appointed commission, would be finished soon.

The military's roadmap for democracy has been widely dismissed as a sham by observers.

Late last month, Ms Suu Kyi said she was not satisfied by recent talks with military rulers, expressing concern that the meetings might raise false hopes of political reform.

She repeated demands that the talks must involve pro-democracy groups and representatives of Burma's ethnic groups.

[Guardsman Bass]

If they offer to allow a strong presence of outside observers in order to ensure the election is fair and the results respected, then I'm not buying this- 2010 is enough time for them to think up more bullshit excuses to ignore elections then.

[Gil Hamilton]

I'm sure this will somehow work out to the Burmese government having a sweeping mandate from the people to keep the status quo with 96% votes for the current government.

[CJvR]

...with 96% votes for the current government.

Or 106%.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

So now that they have screwed the monks, they try for some electoral legitimacy. Who are they fooling?

[[R_H]]

Well, according to the article the last time they tried this, the junta would have lost and the result was ignored. Why is the junta trying it again...so they can look like bigger assholes when the result is again ignored?

[K. A. Pital]

Maybe they're trying to get some legitimacy, you know? That happens from time to time, when a public loses confidence in an authoritarian government, it needs some sort of electoral mechanism to boost it's prestige.

[Sea Skimmer]

Burma has a very long and very ignored history of ethnic conflict; one has to wonder if the current junta isn’t the only thing holding the place together.

[Guardsman Bass]

EDIT: Change "If" to "Unless"