Bangkok Post
11-02-2008
Rangoon - Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is likely to be freed six months prior to a general election in 2010, a leader of the country's largest pro-government political party predicted Monday.
"The general election will be free and fair in 2010 and may lead to the release of Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners under an amnesty," said National Unity Party secretary general Khin Maung Gyi.
Khin Maung Gyi told a press conference that the NUP, known for its close links with the military, expected Suu Kyi and other political prisoners to be released six months prior to the 2010 polls, but he forecast that her National League for Democracy (NLD) would not pull off another landslide as they did in 1990.
"The NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections but this will not happen again in 2010," he said.
The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a pro-military organisation with millions of members, will soon be turned into a political party to contest the 2010 polls, said Khin Maung Gyi.
On Saturday, Burma's ruling junta announced it will hold a referendum on a new constitution in May, to be followed by a general election in 2010.
The announcement was greeted with by scepticism the regime's many detractors, who see the move as a manoeuvre to deflect international pressure on the military to open a political dialogue with Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May, 2003.
The NLD won the 1990 general election with more than 80 per cent of the contested seats, compared with less than 10 per cent by the pro-military NUP.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burma independence hero Aung San, lost her right to contest an election for public office when she married British professor Michael Aris. Under Burma law, and the new draft of the constitution, she is ineligible, but the NLD party can do so.
The party was blocked from taking power by the military for the past 18 years, on the pretence that the country needed a new constitution before handing government over to civilians.
Burma will hold a referendum on the new constitution, drafted by a military-appointed convention to assure their dominant role in any future government, in May.
"The regime is attempting to legalise the military dictatorship with its sham constitution," said The 88 Generation Students, an anti-government group that has been behind recent protests, including the Buddhist monk-led demonstrations in September that ended in a brutal crackdown.
The 88 Generation Students group and other junta critics predict that the referendum will be rigged to assure a positive outcome, as it was in the country's last referendum of 1974 when the former constitution was approved.
Burma has been under military rule since 1962.
Some observers predict that the referendum will prove a flashpoint for more anti-government protests.
"The upcoming constitutional referendum will be a major battle field between the military regime, who wants to rule the country forever, and the people of Burma, who want to be free from military rule," said The 88 Generation Students in a statement. (dpa)
