Myanmar opposition party to sue junta over election laws

Mar 19, 2010, 13:54 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar's main opposition party decided Friday to sue the military-run government for issuing unfair election laws, opposition sources said.

An executive meeting of the National League for Democracy (NLD) - which is headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi - decided to sue the government over election laws promulgated last week, NLD Rakhine member Aye Tha Aung said.

He said the NLD found clauses that excluded the participation of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners from the election process as unlawful.

Under the Political Party Registration Law promulgated last week, the junta has prohibited people currently serving prison terms from being members of political parties.

Suu Kyi, who is serving an 18-month house detention sentence, must be dropped form the NLD party rolls should they wish to registered to contest this year's election, which they must do within the next 60 days.

The NLD has yet to decide whether or not to register to contest the election, a date for which has not yet been set, Aye Tha Aung said.

The new laws promulgated indicate that the regime has every intention to control the outcome of the polls.

The regime will control the appointment of an election commission and has established political party registration criteria that exclude the participation of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. There are some 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar jails.

It also announced the official annulment of the 1990 election, which should have brought the NLD to power.

The NLD won Myanmar's last general election by a landslide, but the generals who have ruled the country since 1962 refused to hand power to a civilian government, arguing that a new constitution was required first.

A military-appointed committee took 18 years to finish a new constitution, which was pushed through in a sham referendum held in May 2008. The new charter cements military control over any future elected government by making the upper house of the National Parliament a partially junta-appointed body with veto power over legislation.

Although a date has yet to be announced for the 2010 polls, the junta was expected to hold them by the end of October, before Suu Kyi's 18-month detention is up.

The election laws appear designed to assure that the NLD does not win a second time. The party has been given 60 days to reregister as a contestant with the Election Committee, which has the power to disqualify the NLD's application should the party choose to contest the polls.