Yangon: A pro-junta political party in Myanmar today backed the regime's new timetable for elections, and urged supporters of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi not to oppose the balloting.

The junta announced late Saturday that it would hold a constitutional referendum in May, ahead of multi-party elections in 2010.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) said it was surprised by the announcement, saying the junta appeared to be assuming that its proposed constitution would be approved by the public.

Khin Maung Gyi, general secretary of the pro-junta National Unity Party, said the NLD needed to show "political maturity" and accept the junta's time frame.

"The people would suffer if (the NLD) goes the wrong way and organises some nonsense instigation," he said, referring to the balloting. "They should have political maturity. They need to consider the real situation," Khin Maung Gyi told a press conference at the party s headquarters, not far from the home where Aung San Suu Kyi has been kept under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.

"I think the NLD should participate in the forthcoming election because they won the last election," he said. The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, taking 392 of the 485 seats in parliament. The National Unity Party won 12 seats.

Military government never recognised the results, instead launched a 14-year process of drafting a new constitution, which the regime says it will bring to voters for approval.

Source : PTI