Myanmar forms panel to implement constitutional amendment

Myanmar's parliament has formed a Committee for Implementation of 2008 Constitution Amendment, according to an official announcement Monday.

The 31-member committee was chaired by U. Nanda Kyaw Swa, deputy speaker of parliament, Xinhua quoted parliament sources as saying.

The committee is designed to review the report, which includes a wide range of public suggestions, submitted in January by the Parliament Joint Committee for Review of 2008 Constitution.

The committee wil also submit a report on the amendment to parliament.

The Joint Committee for Review of 2008 Constitution said it received over 28,247 letters of suggestions from over 20 political parties, legal experts, government departments including the military and civil societies with the majority favouring the amendment.

The 194-page and 15-chapter Republic of the Union of Myanmar Constitution-2008 was promulgated by the previous military government in May 2008.

Under that constitution, a general election was held in November 2010 in which the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won the majority of the parliamentary seats with its then party chairman U. Thein Sein being elected as president of the new civilian government who took office in March 2011.

In 2012, the government amended the party registration law, re-legalising the opposition NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The NLD took part in the by-elections in April, winning 43 out of 45 open parliamentary seats with Aung San Suu Kyi holding a seat of the House of Representatives (lower house).