No clear signs Myanmar wants help with vote: ASEAN

Antara News, Sunday, June 6, 2010 17:03 WIB

Ho Chi Minh City (ANTARA News/AFP) - Myanmar has given no clear signs that it would welcome regional help with its elections expected later this year, its Southeast Asian neighbours said on Sunday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union have urged Myanmar to ensure the elections are "credible and transparent".

ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on East Asia: "We don`t have any clear signal that member states of ASEAN will be asked to help but the offer is on the table."

Surin said in Madrid late last month that the election "won`t be perfect" but would be the start of a process that could lead to real democracy.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

State media in military-ruled Myanmar reported last month that the country has no need for foreign observers to monitor its first elections in two decades, despite international concerns that the polls will lack legitimacy.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been forcibly dissolved under widely criticised laws governing the elections.

The NLD refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register as a party -- a move that would have forced it to expel its own leader -- and boycotted the vote.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, has been held in detention for 14 of the past 20 years.