Lawmaker

Incumbent lawmakers to remain in parliament until January

Just days after the National League for Democracy (NLD) clinched a historic election victory, Burmese lawmakers elected in the flawed 2010 polls are due to resume their work on Monday and legislate for another two and a half months. The peculiar arrangement, unique to the country, was dreamt up by the military drafters of the 2008 constitution. It has been criticised by Burma’s new leader-in-waiting Aung San Suu Kyi and raises questions over what decisions the outgoing ruling party will to try push through before they hand over power. [related] “This is the only constitution in the world where there is such a wide gap between an election and the forming of a new administration,” the NLD leader told reporters at a press conference on 5 November. “This is a matter of concern because … the whole picture might have changed completely (after elections), but still the present legislature will go on until the 31st of January at least.” In most countries, parliament is dissolved immediately after the polls and reconvened by the winning parties, said Tin Maung Maung Than, a senior fellow with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “The system in Myanmar [Burma] is pretty unusual.…