Myanmar court rejects opposition challenge to election laws

Mar 23, 2010, 11:46 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar's Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the main opposition party's challenge to the military government's new election laws, officials said.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), headed by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, presented its case to the Supreme Court but it was not accepted, the party said in a statement.

The NLD claimed clauses that excluded the participation of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners from the party were unlawful.

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

Suu Kyi, who is serving an 18-month house arrest sentence, must be dropped from the NLD party rolls if it wishes to register within the next 60 days to contest this year's election.

The party has not decided whether it will register. A date for for the election has not yet been set.

The new laws appear to give the regime the power to control the outcome of the polls.

The junta would appoint an election commission and has established political party registration criteria that exclude the participation of political prisoners, of which there are an estimate 2,100 in Myanmar jails.

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

The opposition won that election by a landslide, but the generals refused to hand power to a civilian government, arguing that a new constitution was required first. Myanmar has been ruled by the army since 1962.

A military-appointed committee took 18 years to finish the latest 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.

The junta is expected to hold an election by the end of October, before Suu Kyi completes her current detention sentence.