November date set for landmark Myanmar elections: What's at stake?

[Jonathan Fairfield]

November date set for landmark Myanmar elections: What's at stake?

By Tim Hume, CNN

(CNN) Myanmar has set November 8 as the date for a landmark general election, the country's election commission said earlier this week.

The vote will be the first to be held under the country's military-backed, quasi-civilian government, which has been pushing through expansive political and economic reforms since 2011, bringing the country out of decades of authoritarian rule and international isolation.

It is expected to be the freest, fairest vote seen in the country, also known as Burma, since 1990, when the first multi-party election in decades was held.

That election was won convincingly by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), but the country's ruling military junta refused to recognize the results.

Will Aung San Suu Kyi run for president?

Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Suu Kyi -- a national hero who spent nearly 15 years she spent under house arrest -- is overwhelmingly her country's most popular politician.

But under the country's military-drafted constitution, she is barred from the presidency, due to a rule prohibiting anyone with foreign family members from assuming top office. Suu Kyi's late husband was British, and her two sons have British passports.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/09/asia/myanmar-elections-date-set-qa/

[Srikcir]

Another military-drafted constitution where the rule of law is created to suppress opposition to military-backed government.

Is there some "Military-Drafted Constitutions for Dummies" book available?

If there were, all its pages would be dog-eared by the Thai military.

[elgordo38]

Another military-drafted constitution where the rule of law is created to suppress opposition to military-backed government.

Is there some "Military-Drafted Constitutions for Dummies" book available?

If there were, all its pages would be dog-eared by the Thai military.

This constitution will serve as a template for most constitutions being drafted in Asia. Rebranding the constitution with strict controls is the only way to defeat the wishes of the masses. On election day they might as well hand you a ballot with an X imprinted on it before hand.