European envoy urges Myanmar opposition to contest polls (Roundup)

Nov 29, 2008, 8:43 GMT

Yangon- A visiting European diplomat urged the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) to participate in the upcoming 2010 elections, political sources said Saturday.

Attilio Massimo Iannucci, Asia-Pacific chief of Italy's foreign ministry, met Friday with senior NLD party members including veteran journalist Win Tin at the ambassador's residence in Yangon.

During the two-hour discussion, Iannucci urged the NLD to participate in 2010 election because there would be a chance to win again for them, Win Tin said.

'He said at present the military occupied 100 per cent of the government and after 2010, there would be only 25 per cent. It is much better than current situation,' Win Tin told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Italian diplomat also said the international community could if NLD joins election.

'We told him that 25 percent would be just a word and in practice the military would be dominating. We said the constitution must be amended before the election,' Win Tin said.

But he did not say whether the NLD would join election or not.

'There are two different approaches on the election within the NLD. Some want to participate and some do not,' Win Tin said.

Myanmar's ruling junta is expected to field at least two pro-military parties to contest the 2010 elections, forming them out of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).

The USDA was formed on September 15, 1993, as a popular support base for the military.

The association now claims to have 24 million members out of Myanmar's 56 million population, and has been cultivated to become the military's political arm for contesting elections.

'We will form two political parties for the 2010 elections,' said a USDA member after attending their annual meeting in Naypyitaw, the military's new capital, on Friday.

The movement is an essential competent in the military's plans to introduce 'democracy' to Myanmar.

Initial steps included drafting a new constitution having it approved by a national referendum in May.

Both processes were dubbed shams by many international observers because the charter-drafting process was controlled by the military, and the referendum supervised by the army resulted in an absurdly high approval rate exceeding 90 per cent.

The referendum drew intense criticism from Western democracies as it was pushed through in mid-May in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis that devastated the Irrawaddy delta region, leaving almost 140,000 people dead or missing.

The constitution has cemented the military's dominant role in future governments by guaranteeing it a high percentage of appointed senators who can block all controversial legislation.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, when army strongman General Ne Win overthrew the country's first post-independence prime minister U Nu with a coup.

Although the military bowed to international pressure to hold an election in 1990, it refused to acknowledge the outcome.

The NLD, the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won the 1990 polls by a landslide, but the military junta blocked it from taking office by claiming that a new constitution would be needed before civilian rule could work.

The junta took 18 years to come up with a new charter, and Suu Kyi - a Nobel peace laureate - has spent 13 of those years under house arrest.