Myanmar leader issues election warning at military parade

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (AFP) – Myanmar's junta chief warned Saturday against "divisive" and "slanderous" election campaigning as a senior official said the controversial polls would be held by early November.

Senior General Than Shwe addressed thousands of soldiers at a parade ground in the remote capital Naypyidaw, as he presided over the country's final annual military parade ahead of the vote.

"Improper or inappropriate campaigning has to be avoided, such as slandering fellow politicians and parties in order to achieve election victory," Than Shwe said after inspecting the troops from his open-top limousine.

Decked out in his ceremonial uniform, 77-year-old Than Shwe denounced interference by other countries and said campaigns must avoid "engaging in divisive acts that lead to disunity among nationalities and religions".

Critics have dismissed the polls as a sham designed to entrench the generals' power. Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from standing and a quarter of parliamentary seats will be nominated by the junta.

The government has not announced a date for the elections but a senior official told AFP the elections -- the first to be held in more than 20 years -- would take place by early November.

"The candidates will get about six months for campaigning after they have registered as political parties. The elections will be in the last week of October or early in November," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Parliamentary buildings in the new capital are still under construction, but a official involved in the building said they were 70 percent complete and would be ready by the end of the year.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won 1990 elections in a landslide but the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, never allowed it to take power and Suu Kyi has been imprisoned for most of the last 20 years.

Under election laws announced this month, the NLD would have to expel Suu Kyi in order to contest the polls, but it has not yet said if it will take part and is expected to make an announcement on Monday.

The United States has led international criticism, saying the election laws make a "mockery" of democracy.

Than Shwe defended the elections plans at Saturday's parade, saying that many of the military were once politicians, and that the elections would make them civilians once again.

"They will turn back into politicians and engage in national politics when the time comes for political struggle," he said. "This year's elections represent only the beginning of the process of fostering democracy."

The vote is part of the government's seven-step "Roadmap to Democracy", including a new constitution enacted after a referendum held days after a cyclone ravaged the country in May 2008.

Foreign journalists have been barred from covering Armed Forces Day for the past two years, but the junta granted visas for this year's landmark parade, which marks Myanmar's resistance against Japanese occupation in World War II.

CNN correspondent Daniel Rivers, however, was deported Friday after arriving in Naypyidaw. He had previously been expelled from the country in 2008 over his coverage of the disastrous cyclone.

Suu Kyi is one of more than 2,000 political prisoners held in Myanmar, which remains under US and European sanctions over its human rights record.

Earlier this month, UN rights envoy Tomas Quintana reported that human rights violations in Myanmar may amount to crimes against humanity and could warrant a UN inquiry, a move that was strongly denounced by the junta.

Law bars Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi From 2010 Elections

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YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar's military regime took yet another step to expunge Aung San Suu Kyi from the political scene Wednesday by effectively barring her from the first elections in 20 years and pressuring her opposition party to expel her from its ranks.

A new election law announced Wednesday prohibits anyone convicted of a crime — as Suu Kyi was in August — from being a member of a political party. That makes the detained democracy leader ineligible to become a candidate in historic elections scheduled for some time later this year.

The United States and Britain expressed disappointment and regret at the junta's latest move. Analysts called it a clear slap in the face for the international community, which has repeatedly said the elections would not be legitimate if the detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate is barred from running.

The 64-year-old Suu Kyi is the head of the opposition National League for Democracy, which won a landslide victory in the last Myanmar election in 1990. The junta ignored those results and has kept Suu Kyi jailed or under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years.

The new law, the Political Parties Registration Law, could also force Suu Kyi out of her opposition party. It instructs parties to expel members who are "not in conformity with the qualification to be members of a party."

Hours after announcing the blow to the opposition party, the junta offered a carrot. On Wednesday evening, authorities began to reopen several NLD offices in Yangon, by removing red wax that had been sealed over their locks since 2003 to restrict party activities, said party spokesman Nyan Win.

"Maybe they want to show some flexibility," said Nyan Win, noting that the move seemed tied to another provision of the election law that says existing political parties have 60 days from Monday to register. The government currently recognizes 10 parties.

The junta enacted five election-related laws Monday that set out the rules for the election, campaigning and conditions under which parties may participate. So far, it has made public two of the laws. The first stipulates that the junta will appoint the five-member Election Commission, which has final say over the poll's results.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the U.N. is still studying the laws but "the indications available so far suggest that they do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process," spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said that the laws detailed so far are disappointing. Suu Kyi should be released from house arrest so she can "play an active role in the political life of the country going forward," Campbell said during a trip to Malaysia.

It already was widely assumed that Suu Kyi would be shut out of upcoming elections, which critics have denounced as a sham designed to perpetuate military rule.

A provision in the 2008 constitution, drafted under the junta's influence without input from the pro-democracy movement, effectively bars Suu Kyi from taking part in the polls because she was married to a foreigner. Her now-deceased husband was British.

In August, Suu Kyi was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside residence. She was sentenced to an extended 18 months of house arrest, which would keep her locked away during elections. Last month, the Supreme Court dismissed her latest appeal for freedom.

"They've used so many devices. It's like using a machine gun to kill a mosquito," said Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Australia's Macquarie University. "So many of us suspected this wasn't about bringing any real change to Burma, but it is surprising how nakedly they're going about it."

The United States recently has modified its strict policy of isolating the junta to embark on a new policy of engagement. However, the Obama administration has said it will not lift sanctions on Myanmar unless its sees concrete progress toward democratic reform — notably freeing Suu Kyi and letting her party participate in elections.

"The Obama administration went out of its way to say let's begin with a clean slate. Burma has constantly presented him with a clenched fist," Turnell said.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, called the election law unfair, politically motivated and designed to restrict activities of the party, which has already been battered by arrests and harassment.

The law also bars members of religious orders and civil servants from joining political parties.

The date of the elections has not been announced, and Suu Kyi's party has not said whether it will contest the balloting.

"We're going to need to study the election laws carefully once they've all been released," British Ambassador Andrew Heyn said. "But it's regrettable and very disappointing that the laws are not based on a dialogue with a range of political opinion."

He stressed that the release of political prisoners, freedom for all to participate in the elections, freedom to campaign and access to media are essential for the elections to be credible

Myanmar election law puts Suu Kyi party in bind

nullYANGON (cripdo) - Myanmar's main opposition party will have to exclude its leader, detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, if it wants to continue to operate and run in upcoming elections, under the terms of a law made public on Wednesday.

Under the second of five new election laws, being published gradually in state media, the military government is making Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) and some other parties re-register within 60 days with a new election commission.

Failure to do so means they will have to fold.

But to register, they have to exclude party members who are serving prison terms. That would include Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention and is now serving 18 months in house detention for breaching security laws.

Many other senior NLD members are among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to rights activists.

"We find some of the provisions in this law very unfair and completely unacceptable. We feel sure this law will not be conducive to national reconciliation in our country at all," NLD spokesman Nyan Win told Reuters.

Parties wanting to register will also have to give a written commitment to uphold the constitution passed in 2008, which the NLD rejects and campaigned against.

"It's completely impossible for us," Nyan Win said.

Most opposition parties refused to recognise the new constitution, arguing it was drafted by the military regime's handpicked delegates with the intention of cementing the military's grip on power, even after democratic elections.

An election is planned for this year, but no date has been set and the laws that state media started publishing on Tuesday have so far given no hint on timing.

The NLD has not said whether it would run in the election.null

The forthcoming poll has been widely derided as a sham to make the country appear democratic, with the military retaining control over key ministries and institutions.

A separate law published on Tuesday said a Union Election Commission of at least five people would be formed to oversee political parties and organise the vote.

It would have the power to annul polls in places where "natural disasters or security reasons" prevented the vote from being free and fair.

Some analysts said that meant the junta could scrap polls in regions where armed separatists, who have enjoyed de facto autonomy for more than 50 years, refused to take part.

The regime wants ethnic groups to disarm, transfer their fighters to a government-run Border Guard Force (BGF) and join the political process.

UNACCEPTABLE
"The 2008 State Constitution is completely unacceptable, let alone the election laws," said Aye Tha Aung, an ethnic politician and secretary of the Committee Representing the People's Parliament, a loose alliance of Suu Kyi's NLD and ethic parties.

"That constitution will not bring about a lasting democracy in our country even if a free and fair election is held under it. There must be some essential prerequisite for the free and fair election. A constitution acceptable to all and release of all political prisoners are some of these things," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said on Monday he had written to junta supremo Than Shwe expressing concern about the lack of progress on democratic reform.

The U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Kurt Cambell, who has spreadheaded the U.S. government's shift towards engagement with the regime, is visiting Southeast Asia from March 7 to March 17.

Myanmar is not on his itinerary, raising speculation he may not have been offered access to Suu Kyi and others.

U.S. embassy officials in Bangkok said they were unaware of any request for Campbell to visit Myanmar on this trip. (Writing by Alan Raybould; Additional reporting by Ambika Ahuja; Editing by Sugita Katyal)null