YANGON, Myanmar, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Myanmar has announced the date of the general election, the first in 20 years and which bars the last winner who remains under house detention.
The date of Nov. 7 ends months of speculation but not of controversy and international concern over what many Western democracies fear will be a contrived outcome.
The junta officially announced the date in a brief statement in the government's mouthpiece newspaper, New Light of Myanmar, and on state-controlled radio and television.
The election is expected to be tightly controlled and carefully monitored by the generals' own appointed elections commission.
On the same day as the election date was announced, the commission gave the 40 registered political parties until Aug. 30 to hand in the list of all their party members.
Fifteen parties have done so already, the New Light of Myanmar said.
A focus of international concern is Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the National League for Democracy Party who is barred from running by an election law created by the generals in April.
The law disallows people, such as Suu Kyi, with criminal records from standing for office. She has spent many of the past 20 years under some form of arrest and detention. UPI
