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.
USA
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