Myanmar's military government said on Saturday it would hold a referendum on a new constitution in May followed by multi-party elections in 2010, a move dismissed as worthless by the opposition without the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We have achieved success in economic, social and other sectors and in restoring peace and stability," the junta announced on state television after sending in the army to quell Buddhist monk-led pro-democracy demonstrations in September. "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 since 1990, when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won multi-party elections in the former Burma. The military, which has ruled the country since 1962, ignored the result, crushing pro-democracy demonstrations at the cost of several thousand lives.