The real competition centers on the USDP and the NUP to contest the upcoming election for the parliament of Rangoon Division. Will Rangoon residents support either state-backed party, given their history with the regime?

Unnamed official sources in Burma have recently said that Aung San Suu Kyi will be released from house arrest on Nov. 13, when her current period of detention is due to expire. But is the Burmese regime really planning to free the detained Nobel Peace Prize winner? The answer to this question very much depends on one person: Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

Do Burma's rulers care if this year's election is free and fair? Of course not. Why should they?

It's not as if holding a sham election will make them the black sheep of the regional family. The political systems of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are not even remotely

With Burma's general election just around the corner, many regional observers are predicting some form of political change; even if they do all agree that the election itself will be no more than a sham.

One month ahead of Burma's November elections, Asian and European leaders attending the 8th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Brussels are scheduled to issue a statement on Tuesday that will reportedly press the Burmese junta to hold free, fair and inclusive elections.

Naypyidaw, a remote town located halfway between Burma's two main cities, Rangoon and Mandalay, has been the country's administrative capital since junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe deemed it so on Nov. 6, 2005.

Burma's new 2008 Constitution offers many problems for political parties, ethnic cease-fire groups and exiled dissident factions seeking some common ground to the disagreements between ethnic groups and the military dictatorship.

The candidate nomination period for Burma's 2010 election closed on Monday, and the deadline for candidates who want to withdraw their application is Sept. 3.

Burma's new constitution has again become a center of debate among foreign experts, diplomats and social workers working with their different missions, searching for a solution to the current political conflict between democracy and military authoritarianism.

Burmese parties planning to participate in the election with the intention of focusing on the people's betterment, believing they could make changes from within, should not gamble on the fate of the nation.