YANGON: Army-ruled Myanmar said today it will hold a referendum on a new constitution in May followed by elections in 2010,a move critics said was aimed at deflecting pressure after last year's crackdown on protesters. We have achieved success in economic, social and other sectors and in restoring peace and stability, the junta announced on state television four months after the army crushed monk-led pro-democracy protests, killing at least 31 people. So multi-party, democratic elections will be held in 2010, said the statement issued in the name of Secretary Number One Lieutenant-General Tin Aung Myint Oo, a top member of the junta.

The elections would be the first held in the former Burma since 1990,when Aung San Suu Kyi s National League for Democracy (NLD) won a multi-party poll later rejected by the military, which has ruled in various guises since 1962. The NLD, which boycotted a constitution-drafting convention while its leader, Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest, called the announcement erratic . They have now fixed a date for the election before knowing the results of the referendum. I can t help but wonder how the referendum will be conducted, NLD spokesman Nyan Win said. The Burma Campaign UK, a pro-democracy group, dismissed it as public relations spin and nothing to do with democracy .

It is no coincidence that the announcement comes at a time when the regime is facing increasing economic sanctions following its brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations, Campaign director Mark Farmaner said in a statement. Britain s Foreign Office called for the release of Suu Kyi and other detained political leaders to ensure a genuine and inclusive process of national reconciliation . The junta s announcement did not make clear whether the NLD would be allowed to take part in the election, but the constitution is believed likely to disbar Suu Kyi from office by ruling out anyone married to a foreigner. Suu Kyi s husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999. DISCIPLINED DEMOCRACY After 14 years of working out the principles for a disciplined democracy, a committee of mainly military officers and civil servants assigned last year to draft the constitution would finish its work soon, the statement said.

A nationwide referendum will be held in May 2008 to ratify the newly drafted constitution, it said. Snippets of its basic principles that have appeared in state-controlled media do not point to any transfer of power to a civilian administration, or greater autonomy for Myanmar s 100-plus ethnic minorities. The commander-in-chief of the army will be the most powerful man in the country, able to appoint key ministers and assume power in times of emergency . The military will hold 25 per cent of seats in the new parliament, and hold veto power over parliamentary decisions. This is a move away from democracy, not towards it, Farmaner said, adding the regime will do everything it can to fix the outcome of the referendum and elections .

The military government announced the seven-step roadmap in 2003 but had refused to set a firm timetable until now. Some Southeast Asia neighbours have been increasingly critical of Myanmar s foot-dragging on reforms, while the West has tried to pressure China, one of Myanmar s few friends, to coax the generals to change. Beijing, which has interests in Myanmar s resource wealth such as natural gas and timber, has refused to back sanctions against the regime. But last month it urged the regime to allow UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to return to Myanmar soon to promote a genuine dialogue between the junta and opposition. China may have put pressure on them to announce something acceptable. They may have used the Olympic Games as a bargaining chip, a Yangon-based Asian diplomat said. Rights groups have seized upon the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as a chance to exert pressure on China for everything from the conflict in Darfur to Beijing's support of Myanmar's junta.

Source : UNI