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Myanmar parliament opens, spotlight on beleaguered speaker
Myanmar's parliament reopened Tuesday for its final session before a nationwide election, with a spotlight on the influential speaker following his ouster late last week as head of the military-backed ruling party
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yanmar's parliament reopened Tuesday for its final session before a nationwide election, with a spotlight on the influential speaker following his ouster late last week as head of the military-backed ruling party.
Shwe Mann said nothing to reporters as he entered the chambers.
But sources said he was being pressured to put forward a bill that could lead to his own impeachment ' it says lawmakers who have lost the trust of even 1 percent of their constituents can be stripped of their seats.
Myanmar only recently started moving from dictatorship to democracy, but critics say the strings of power behind the quasi-civilian government remain members of the old military elite, including former dictator Than Shwe, who lives in a sprawling compound in the capital, Naypyitaw.
As elections approach, tensions have been building between President Thein Sein and Shwe Mann, both former generals and members of the governing Union Solidarity and Development Party.
Shwe Mann ' ousted as party chair late last week after hundreds of soldiers and police seized the party's offices ' has come to be seen as a reformist.
He had lost the support of military hardliners, in part because of his close ties to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The two met for an hour on Monday, apparently to discuss the political upheaval and its potential impact.
There was murmuring Tuesday that polls now scheduled for Nov. 8 could be delayed by up to a month.
"Whatever happens with the USDP is their own internal affair," a solemn-faced Suu Kyi told reporters as she entered the building. "This has nothing to do with us and I don't want to say anything on that."
But she said added that if changes in the ruling party leadership affect the election, resulting in either a cancellation or delay, "we must not be silent." (**)
