(RTTNews) - Ending months of speculation and showing signs of compliance to calls by the international community, the military regime in Myanmar has confirmed that it will hold a general election soon, honoring previous commitments.'A free and fair general election will be held this year in accordance with the seven step road map,' state-controlled media quoted Senior General Than Shwe as saying in his annual message marking Union Day in the military capital of Naypyitaw on Friday.
He said "members of parliament, who the voters think will be capable of generating a prosperous future for the nation, will be elected by ballot."
The junta's road map lists a general election as one of the steps toward a "discipline-flourishing democracy."
However, detained Opposition pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi responded to the news on a pessimistic note. Nyan Win, spokesperson for Suu Kyi's political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), quoted her as saying that "we cannot say at this moment whether to participate in the election." He said the main reason she gave was the lack of freedom of information.
Suu Kyi's party had won a landslide victory in the 1990 election but the junta refused to recognize it.
Burmese Union Day commemorates the signing of an agreement in 1947 among various Myanmar ethnic groups and factions to create the independent republic of Burma.
Now known as Myanmar, Burma was liberated from Britain in 1948 after a century of colonial rule.
Myanmar's military government announced in early 2008 that elections would take place in 2010.
If the word is kept, it will mark the East Asian country's first general elections in two decades. But the necessary election laws have to be passed and a date set to pave the way for the vote.
The announcement comes two weeks after Myanmarese Home Minister Major General Maung Oo said that the government would pursue an international-style market economy for the country after holding "free and fair" elections, the date of which is yet to be finalized.
He also indicated about releasing Tin Oo, the veteran vice chairman of NLD.
His son, Thant Zin Oo, said the former Army Commander would probably be released on Saturday as part of attempts by the junta to refurbish its image before the election.
Tin Oo (82) has been detained for seven years without trial.
The Supreme Court is to deliver its verdict in the next couple of weeks on Suu Kyi's legal appeal against the extension of her current house arrest.
Myanmar's democracy icon, who has been detained in her house for about 14 of the past 20 years, Suu Kyi had wrote to the country's military leader Than Shwe in November last, expressing her willingness to work with the government to get Western sanctions against the country lifted.
She was allowed in recent months to meet ailing senior members of her party, as well as with members of the country's military administration.
Meanwhile, the UN human rights special rapporteur for Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, has requested to meet with Suu Kyi and other political leaders during his third mission to the country beginning at weekend.
"2010 appears to be a critical time for the people of Myanmar, as the government plans to hold a national election after 20 years," he said in a press release.
Quintana added that he intends to review and report on progress of implementation of the four core human rights elements that he had recommended.
Under immense pressure from the international community, including rigorous sanctions, Myanmar's military regime has been comparatively flexible in its stance since last year.
It announced an amnesty for more than 6,000 prisoners in February 2009.
An American, who was jailed for swimming secretly to the Nobel Peace laureate's lakeside home in June, was released in August after Washington's intervention.
A high-level U.S. delegation visited the country in November and said the United States was ready to improve its relations with Myanmar if the ruling military administration made significant moves toward political reconciliation.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington was not "setting or dictating any conditions," in return for Myanmar's military administration enforcing democratic changes in that country.
However, she made it clear that US sanctions would continue until a "meaningful process" takes place for a significant progress in democracy.
by RTT Staff Writer
Source :http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=1210139&SMap=1
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