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YANGON : Myanmar's military government on Monday unveiled long-awaited laws for elections later, this year but gave no immediate date for the country's first polls in two decades, state media said.
Junta chief Than Shwe promised the elections in 2008 as part of his so-called "roadmap to democracy", but critics say the vote will be a sham if pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.
"The laws were enacted by the State Peace and Development Council and the details of the laws will be published in tomorrow's newspaper and also will be published as a book," state television and radio said.
It was unclear if a date for the election would be included in the five new laws. Analysts have predicted the polls will take place in October or November.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) said the military government had not given parties enough time to prepare for the elections, but it would reserve its decision on whether to take part until after it had seen the laws.
The NLD won Myanmar's last national polls by a landslide in 1990, but the military regime refused to let it take office. Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since then.
"It cannot be fair by announcing the laws at this time for an election to be held in 2010. There is not enough time, the parties are not ready, they cannot lobby or campaign," NLD spokesman Nyan Win told reporters.
He said senior party members hoped to meet Suu Kyi later this week.
The five laws enacted were the political parties registration law and four separate laws for the national election commission, the election commissions of the two houses of parliament and all regional parliaments.
They are expected to contain rules on the length and type of campaigning and on which candidates are eligible to stand.
The elections are being held under a new constitution agreed in a May 2008 referendum just days after a devastating cyclone that killed up to 138,000 people in Myanmar.
The constitution effectively bars Suu Kyi from standing even if she were released from her house arrest, which was extended by 18 months in August due to an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home.
It also reserves around a quarter of all parliamentary seats for serving members of the military.
The UN rights envoy to Myanmar said after visiting in February that the polls would be neither fair nor free if Suu Kyi and another 2,100 political prisoners were kept in detention.
But analysts said the elections could still be a catalyst for partial change.
"I see the elections themselves as being totally rigged and closed," Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Macquarie University in Australia, told AFP.
"But we are in an interesting period in the lead-up because there is a lot more uncertainty than anyone really expected. There do seem to be some people (in the regime) jockeying around," he added.
Analysts have suggested the elections could herald at least a formal change in the hierarchy at the top of the military government, even if real power remains in the hands of 76-year-old Than Shwe and his allies.
The government has increased contacts with Suu Kyi since September. Media reports quoted Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo as saying in January that the democracy leader's release would come in November, though there has been no official confirmation.
In recent months, the United States, followed by the European Union, has shifted towards a policy of greater engagement with Myanmar, as sanctions have failed to bear fruit. - AFP/ms
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