Saturday, March 27, 2010

Burma to hold polls in October

 
Saturday, 27 March 2010 14:08 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) - The much hyped and controversial general elections in Burma are likely to be held by the junta in the last week of October or early November, an AFP report said on Saturday.

“The candidates will get about six months to campaign after they have registered as political parties. The elections will be in the last week of October or early in November,” the report said quoting an anonymous official.

The military junta that has ruled the country for the past 20 years, however, has made no official announcement on the dates of the polls.

But earlier this month, it announced the electoral laws, where it was criticized for imposing restrictions on political prisoners including detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, from contesting the polls.

According to the law, the National League for Democracy (NLD) party must expel its general secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, if it plans to register as a political party and contest the polls.

The NLD swept the elections in Burma in 1990 but the military refused to hand over power.

The detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, (64), has been under some form of detention for the past 14 of 20 years.