Junta announced the date for referendum and election

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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's surprise announcement that it will hold a vote on a new constitution this May and a general election in 2010 drew little enthusiasm Sunday among the military regime's critics and the public at large.

The official announcements late Saturday of the constitutional referendum and the election were the first moves by the junta to set dates for stages of its so-called road map to democracy.

"The time has now come to change from military rule to democratic civilian rule," said the announcement for the 2010 polls, broadcast on state TV and radio.

But critics claim the long-delayed road map is designed to perpetuate military rule, not promote democracy. And at tea shops in Yangon, where morning news and gossip is traditionally exchanged, many seemed unimpressed with the developments.

"I am not interested in their referendum because the results are known already," said 48-year old noodle salad seller Mar Mar Aye, echoing the popular belief that the government is confident its constitution will be approved.

Several people said they were unsure what the referendum was, noting the language describing it was similar to that used for the stage-managed mass rallies the government frequently holds to show the public supports its policies. Myanmar's last constitutional referendum took place in 1973.

The last election in the country, also known as Burma, took place in 1990, but the military refused to hand over power to the winning party - the National League for Democracy of detained Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in prison or under house arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

Suu Kyi and other independent political leaders have not been consulted on the constitution or the election process. Suu Kyi's party reacted cautiously, noting the lack of detail on how the referendum would be carried out.

"The announcement is vague, incomplete and strange," NLD party spokesman Nyan Win said Saturday night.

"Even before knowing the results of the referendum, the government has already announced that elections will be held in 2010," he said, also implying the government was certain the draft constitution would get approval.

Trevor Wilson, a Myanmar expert at the Australian National University in Canberra, called the move "a step forward," but added that "it is long overdue."

It "is in itself insufficient to mollify either Burmese opponents of the military regime or the international community," Wilson said.

The international community increased pressure on the junta to hasten political reform after it violently quashed peaceful mass protests last September, killing at least 31 people, according to a U.N. estimate. Thousands were detained.

Last week, the United States broadened financial sanctions against junta members and their families and friends, blaming the military's poor human rights record and failure to hand power to a democratically elected government.

A statement from the British Foreign Office in London said "a genuine and inclusive process of national reconciliation" was necessary for a transition to democracy, and called for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Scheduling the referendum for May makes it difficult for the junta's critics to mount a campaign against it, particularly because most of the country's leading pro-democracy activists are in jail, many detained in connection with last year's anti-government demonstrations.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962 and has not had a constitution since the last one was scrapped in 1988, when the army brutally put down earlier pro-democracy demonstrations and the current junta took power.

The country has been in a political deadlock since the military refused to recognize the 1990 election results, saying after the polls the country first needed a new constitution. It harassed and arrested members of the pro-democracy movement, particularly from Suu Kyi's party.

Guidelines for a new constitution were adopted by a military-managed national convention last year, and a government-appointed commission is now drafting the document.

The National League for Democracy has accused the junta of trying to draft a constitution unilaterally, and it therefore "could not be expected to guarantee democracy, human rights and public well-being."

Myanmar's ethnic minority groups, some of whom have been seeking greater autonomy for decades, complained the constitution would give the central government greater powers even as the minorities have been seeking more administrative and judicial autonomy in their home areas.

A clause in the draft guidelines guarantees the military 25 percent of the seats in the country's parliament, with the representatives nominated by the commander in chief.

The guidelines also disqualify presidential candidates who are "entitled to the rights and privileges of a ... foreign country." The clause would bar Suu Kyi, because her late husband was British, thus conferring on her some of the privileges of British nationality.