Parliament Expected to Open in Late January

Picture taken on August 21 shows the laborers working to complete Burma's new parliament building in Naypyidaw. (Photo: Getty Images)

The opening session of the new Burmese parliament's lower house will take place in late January, according to official sources.

The sources said they had learned that the military junta will announce the date within the next few days as it must be made public one month in advance. “It's likely to be on January 27,” said one official source.

Intelligence officials agreed that January 27 is the most likely day for the opening of parliament as its two numerals add up to the astrologically favorable number of nine and a lucky day of the month in the Burmese calendar—particularly for the superstitious generals.

Elected members of the junta proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party met this week in Naypyidaw to prepare for the parliamentary opening.

Junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe has finalized the appointment of military officials who will fill the 25 percent of the upper and lower houses and regional parliaments allotted to the military.

According to the 2008 constitution, the “first session of a term of the Pyithu Hluttaw (the people’s assembly) shall be held within 90 days” after the elections and the first parliament meeting “shall be held by the State Peace and Development Council after the Constitution comes into operation.”

The junta recently summoned military officials and hundreds of USDP elected members to a meeting in Naypyidaw to discuss immediate post-election issues such as parliamentary matters and the selection of a president and two vice-presidents.

At the meeting, the office of the commander in chief (Army) also known as the Ka Ka Kyi, listed a quarter of the Lower House members from the military, or 110 out of 440 representatives, and a quarter of the Upper House members, or 56 out of 168 legislators, as well as 25 percent of the seats in all 14 regional parliaments.

The junta appears to have already chosen the president, two presidents (one will be of ethnic background) and the chairmen of the parliaments. Ex-Gen Shwe Mann is tipped to be the president, while Agriculture and Irrigation Minister ex-Maj-Gen Htay Oo, who is also general secretary of the USDP, is favorite for the post of union parliament head, overseeing the lower and upper houses.

Burma’s last parliament session was in September 1988. Amid the 1988 uprising and just a few days before the coup on Sept 18, 1988, the former one-party system regime of the Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) held an extraordinary congresses of the ruling party. The last BSPP session was under the BSPP chairman, Yale-educated law expert Maung Maung, who succeed late dictator Ne Win and Sein Lwin.

Source:http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20409