Myanmar elections to be held Nov. 7

(Updated 12:51 p.m.) YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar's first election in two decades will be held Nov. 7, the ruling junta announced Friday, finally setting a date for long-awaited polls that critics have dismissed as a sham designed to cement military rule. The brief announcement by the Election Commission was carried on state TV and radio. "Multiparty general elections for the country's parliament will be held on Sunday Nov. 7," said the announcement, which called on political parties to submit candidate lists between Aug. 16 and Aug. 30. Ahead of the polls, the ruling military junta has passed many laws and rules criticized as undemocratic and unfair by detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the international community. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy is boycotting the election. The party was officially disbanded in May because it refused to register. Suu Kyi's party won a landslide majority in the 1990 election, but the junta refused to honor the results. The new election laws effectively bar Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi and other political prisoners — estimated at more than 2,000 — from taking part in the elections. Tight rules for campaigning bar parties from chanting, marching or saying anything at rallies that could tarnish the country's image. Renegade members of Suu Kyi's disbanded party have formed a new group, the National Democratic Force, to carry the party's mantle in the vote. Suu Kyi has expressed dissatisfaction through her lawyer with the formation of the new breakaway party. — AP