The parties in the running include the ruling military junta (USDP) and the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The Nobel Laureate, however, has been excluded from the race for president, the highest office in the country.

Naypyidaw (AsiaNews / Agencies) – The national  electoral commission, in a note posted on its website, it has announced the date of the next democratic elections for November 8, 2015.

The government  (Civilian in name but military in nature) has been promising elections since 2010.  This November will be a run off between the two major parties- as well as minority parties - the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and the National Legue for Demcracy (NLD) whose leader, Aung San Suu Kyi has been excluded from the presidential race, the highest office in the country.

The two parties are the same people who in 1990 had inspired the last democratic elections in the country, won in a landslide victory by Suu Kyi’s party, but whose outcome the military junta refused to recognize.

The NLD boycotted the "democratic" vote held in 2010 because its leader had not been admitted among candidates as she was still under house arrest.

The next elections will be useful for the formation of the new parliament, which will then have the task of appointing the president. The exclusion of Aung San Suu Kyi from office by the junta was justified by the fact that her husband and two sons are British. The NLD announced that it will decide whether to participate in the elections within three days of notification of the official date.

Soe Win Than, a BBC analyst, said that all parties should run in the elections that will see "the biggest substantial participation of opposition parties" in the history of the country.

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