Yangon: Myanmar is preparing to open its first session of Parliament in more than two decades, a major step in the ruling military`s self-styled transition to democracy but one being carried out with little fanfare or public enthusiasm.
Delegates are gathering for Monday morning`s simultaneous opening of the 440-seat lower house and 224-seat upper house in a massive new building in Naypyitaw, the remote city to which the capital was moved from Yangon in 2005.
One-quarter of the seats in each chamber are given under the 2008 constitution to the military, supporting criticism that the so-called roadmap to democracy is a fig leaf for continued rule by the Army. The Army has pulled the strings since a 1962 coup ended the last legitimate parliamentary democracy.
Bureau Report
