AP
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Voters will be allowed to watch ballot counting to ensure fairness in a May referendum on Myanmar's proposed constitution, an election official in the military-ruled country said in a news report.
Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party expressed skepticism, however. Critics say the draft constitution itself is a sham designed to perpetuate military rule and to keep Suu Kyi from running for office.
Allowing voters to observe ballot counting will help ensure that voting is conducted according to international standards, the government-controlled Myanmar Times newspaper on Thursday quoted Hla Soe, chairman of Yangon's Referendum Holding Commission, as saying.
Suu Kyi's party said in a statement that the draft constitution fails to guarantee democracy.
The junta will hold the referendum in May and has promised general elections in 2010 - the first specific dates for steps in its previously announced "roadmap to democracy."
The National League For Democracy has been trying to urge voters to reject the draft constitution, but harassment of pro-democracy activists and restrictions on freedom of speech have made that difficult.
The government, meanwhile, has launched an aggressive campaign through state media with songs, cartoons, articles and slogans urging people to approve the constitution.
The draft constitution allots 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military. It also empowers the president to transfer all government powers to the military for up to a year if the government declares a state of emergency.
The draft also bans anyone who has enjoyed the rights and privileges of a foreign citizen from holding public office - a rule that would keep Suu Kyi out of government because her late husband was British.
Myanmar's military seized power in 1988 and refused to honor the results of 1990 general elections won by Suu Kyi's party.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi is under house arrest and has been in detention without trial for 12 of the past 18 years.
The junta has been under pressure to make democratic reforms, especially since it crushed peaceful pro-democracy protests last September. The U.N. estimates at least 31 people were killed and thousands were detained.
The European Parliament called Thursday for tougher EU sanctions against Myanmar, including barring military-linked companies from banks in the European Union. It also wants to prohibit EU health care and education institutions from providing services to some generals and their families.
The appeal, made in a resolution, is likely to be ignored. The EU has already said it would extend existing sanctions including a travel ban on Myanmar officials, an arms embargo, a freeze of assets and a ban on many imports from Myanmar.
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