NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar: 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.
Source :http://www.newsabahtimes.com.my/nstweb/fullstory/37221
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