Myanmar Junta appoints commission

Myanmar police and security officials block the road and search cars in Yangon, Myanmar, in the early hours yesterday.

Myanmar’s ruling junta yesterday appointed an election commission to oversee this year’s polls as international anger grew over new laws barring opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi from the vote.
The commission was set up under new legislation unveiled by the government on Monday and its 17 members are handpicked by the military regime, leading to criticism from rights groups that the body would not be impartial.
One of the commission’s first tasks is expected to be the long-awaited announcement of a date for the country’s first elections in two decades. Analysts say the most likely time in October or November.
“The State Peace and Development Council [the formal name for the junta] has formed the union election commission with these people according to the union election commission law to hold successful multi-party democracy elections in 2010,” state television said.
It cited an order signed by General Tin Aung Myint Oo, the number five in the junta hierarchy, and named the chairman of the new commission as Thein Soe, without giving further details.
The US has slammed the new electoral laws as a “mockery”, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed to the junta to free Suu Kyi and let her take part.
Under the legislation, Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi faces exclusion from her own National League for Democracy (NLD) and is not allowed to stand in the elections on the grounds that she is a serving prisoner.
The laws also officially annul the result of Myanmar’s last elections in 1990, which the NLD won by a landslide. The junta never allowed the party to take power.
“The result of the multi-party democracy elections, held under a deleted law, is automatically abolished as it is not in accordance with the constitution,” said the relevant law.
But in a surprise move, authorities permitted the reopening of around 300 NLD offices, which were shut after an attack by a pro-junta mob on Suu Kyi’s motorcade in May 2003 which left dozens of people dead.
“They have not yet informed our party headquarters but the authorities have informed regional and divisional offices that they can reopen,” NLD spokesman Nyan Win said yesterday.
The NLD has not said if it will take part in the elections.
The new laws say that political parties face dissolution if they have members who are serving prison terms, while also giving parties just 60 days from Monday to decide whether to register.
The Philippines yesterday described the law affecting Suu Kyi as a “farce”, becoming the first member of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to publicly comment. The group includes Myanmar.
“Unless they release Suu Kyi and allow her and her party to participate in the elections, it’s a complete farce and therefore contrary to their road map to democracy,” Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said in a statement.
But China, which has huge investments in neighbouring Myanmar, said the laws were a matter for Myanmar alone.
“These are the internal affairs of Myanmar, which need to be properly resolved by the government and people of Myanmar. We hope to see the stability and development of Myanmar,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.