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Myanmar announces vote in 2010
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi may not be allowed to stand in the elections [GALLO/GETTY]
Myanmar's military government says it will hold a referendum on a new constitution in May, followed by multi-party elections in 2010, the first in two decades.

A statement on state television said: "It is suitable to change the military administration to a democratic, civil administrative system, as good fundamentals have been established."
According to the government, "the country's basic infrastructure has been built, although there is still more to do in striving for the welfare of the nation".
 
The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, said it was "surprised" by the announcement.
Myanmar timeline

1988: Military crackdown on pro-democracy protests, estimated 3,000 killed

 

1989: Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to house arrest for allegedly endangering the state

 

1990: NLD wins landslide in national election; military refuses to recognise result

 

1991: Suu Kyi awarded Nobel Peace Prize

 

1995: Suu Kyi freed, but movements restricted

 

1997: Myanmar admitted to Asean

 

2000: Suu Kyi sentenced to house arrest for defying travel restrictions

 

2002: Suu Kyi released following UN-facilitated secret talks with government

 

2003: Government unveils "road map" to democracy; Suu Kyi returned to house arrest after her convoy is attacked in north of country

 

2005: Government announces shift to new capital Naypidaw

 

2007: Nearly 3,000 prisoners released in amnesty to mark independence anniversary, but no key political figures freed

Nyan Win, spokesman for the NLD, said: "I am surprised that they set a date for an election."
 
He also said that it was premature to plan for national elections when no one has seen the final version of the proposed constitution.

"We have to see the results of the referendum on the constitution. How can they know if it will be a success? It is still early to talk about an election."

Possible exclusion

However, the new constitution may not allow Suu Kyi to take a government position as it may bar anyone married to a foreigner.
   
Suu Kyi's husband, Michael Aris, a British academic, died in March 1999.
The NLD won Myanmar's last election in 1990, but the ruling military government has never recognised the result.

In Bangkok, Thailand, a spokesman for a group of exiled MPs who fled after that vote, said that the elections would be meaningless unless Suu Kyi was freed and took part.
   
"Without the participation of Suu Kyi, the NLD and ethnic parties the people will not accept this constitution," Zin Linn of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, said.

Instead, the generals insisted on drafting a new constitution and convened a so-called National Convention in 1993, which spent the next 14 years in meetings laying out the guidelines for a new charter.
  
In the early stages, the NLD participated in the talks, but the party later boycotted the convention in protest at Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest, which is now entering its 12th year.

The convention finally ended on September 3, 2007, weeks after anti-government demonstrations began in Yangon, the former capital, in protest at a hike in fuel prices in mid-August.
  
By the end of September, the protests had turned into the  largest anti-government demonstrations in nearly 20 years.

The military responded with a deadly crackdown in which security forces  opened fire on crowds, killing at least 31 people, according to the UN.
 Source: Agencies
 
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