Pro-junta parliamentarians gather for closed-door meeting

Thu, 23 Dec 2010

Yangon - Elected members of Myanmar's pro-junta political party that won last month's general election gathered this week in Naypyitaw for closed-door discussions on nominations for the country's top leadership, sources said Thursday.

Legislators from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which won 77 per cent of the contested seats in the November 7 polls, met from Tuesday until Thursday in Naypyitaw, the military's new capital situated about 350 kilometers north of Yangon.

"The meeting is for preparing for the coming parliaments," a government official said. "I think there may be some nominations for important posts for the new government," said the official, who requested anonymity.

Last month, military-ruled Myanmar held its first polls in two decades for its three houses of parliament - upper, lower, and regions or states.

USDP, the proxy party of Myanmar's ruling junta, won 76.8 per cent of the 1,096 contested seats, or altogether 842 seats in the three chambers of parliament.

According to Myanmar's constitution, the elected legislators must nominate a new president and vice presidents within three months of the election, who will then select cabinet ministers and open parliament.

The selection process will be dominated by the winning USDP, which is packed with ex-military men and government ministers.

Even without the massive USDP election win, the next parliaments would not be free from military controls since the current constitution allows the army to appoint 25 per cent of all legislators, enough for them to veto any legislation they disapprove of.

Myanmar's elections were strongly criticized by the international community for being unfair and for excluding Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy opposition party.

Suu Kyi, 65, was freed from a seven-year house detention term on November 13, a week after the polls.

The National League for Democracy won the 1990 general election by a landslide, but it was blocked from assuming power by the military. The party was officially disbanded in May for failing to register to contest the polls.

Beside the USDP, other parties that won seats in the election included the pro-establishment National Unity Party with 5.7 per cent, the pro-democracy Shan Nationalities Democratic Party with 5.2 per cent and the Rakhaine National Development Party polled 3.2 per cent.

The National Democratic Force, a breakaway faction from the main opposition National League for Democracy party, came in sixth with 1.5 per cent of all contested seats.

Myanmar has been under military dictatorships since 1962.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359425,parliamentarians-gather-closed-door-meeting.html.