Myanmar junta hints at polls in November

Myanmar's junta chief warned on Saturday against "divisive" and "slanderous" election campaigning as a senior official said the controversial polls would be held by early November.

Addressing 13,000 troops at the country's annual Armed Forces Day parade, at remote capital Naypyidaw, Senior General Than Shwe said Myanmar should oversee its own elections and urged patience and fair play. He warned against foreign meddling in upcoming elections and said "divisive acts" could spark anarchy and derail the transition to democracy. This could be the country's final annual military parade ahead of the elections.

"Improper or inappropriate campaigning has to be avoided, such as slandering fellow politicians and parties in order to achieve election victory," the 77-year-old Than Shwe said after inspecting the troops from his open-top limousine.

Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from standing and a quarter of parliamentary seats will be nominated by the junta.

The government has not announced a date for the elections but a senior official told AFP the elections -- the first to be held in more than 20 years -- would take place by early November.

"The candidates will get about six months for campaigning after they have registered as political parties. The elections will be in the last week of October or early in November," he told AFP.

Foreign journalists have been barred from covering Armed Forces Day for the past two years, but the junta granted visas for this year's landmark parade, which marks Myanmar's resistance against Japanese occupation in World War II.

Suu Kyi is one of more than 2,000 political prisoners held in Myanmar, which remains under US and European sanctions over its human rights record.

- Asian Tribune -

- Asian Tribune -