Myanmar polls set for November

Myanmar will hold its first general election in two decades on November 7, state media has reported. The polls will be the first since 1990 when the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained pro-democracy leader, won a landslide victory but was not allowed to take power. Western countries fear that the boycott-hit election is a sham to tighten the grip of the military rulers who have ruled the country for the last 50 years. The United States said on Friday that the circumstances that the polls were being held in meant that they could not be "inclusive or credible"."Given the oppressive political environment in Burma, there is not a level playing field for these elections," Philip Crowley, the US state department spokesman, said, using the previous name for Myanmar.