Burma's military government will hold a referendum on a new constitution this May followed by multiparty elections in 2010 as part of the junta's roadmap to democracy, state television announced today.
The government announced the seven-step roadmap in 2003 to end more than 40 years of military rule in the former Burma but has refused until now to set a firm timetable.
"We have achieved success in economic, social and other sectors and in restoring peace and stability," said a statement issued in the name of Secretary Number One Lieutenant-General Tin Aung Myint Oo, a top member of the junta.
"In accord with the fourth step of the seven-step roadmap to democracy, a nationwide referendum will be held in May 2008 to ratify the newly drafted constitution".
The new constitution, now being drafted after the completion of a national convention first convened in the 1990s, will be finished soon, the statement added.
The constitution is believed likely to disbar detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from office by ruling out anyone married to a foreigner, as she was, and to ensure the top leadership comes from the military.
Suu Kyi's husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in March 1999. Her National League for Democracy swept the last multi-party election in the former Burma in 1990 after the army had crushed nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations with the loss of several thousand lives.
The military, which has ruled the country since 1962, ignored the result and she has spent much of the time since then in detention.
The government announced the seven-step roadmap in 2003 but had refused to set a firm timetable until now.
Last September the junta was condemned and the United Nations intervened after the army quelled pro-democracy demonstrations led Buddhist monks. Thousands were arrested and international agencies said up to 200 people were killed. Rangoon said 10 people were killed.