Yangon, February 28:

The party of Myanmar’s detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said today that the junta’s proposed constitution “cannot be accepted by the people” when it goes to a referendum in May.

In its strongest statement yet on the referendum, the National League for Democracy (NLD) said the regime had drafted the constitution without consulting key representatives of the people.

“The one-sided text of the authorities can not only harm the national reconciliation process but also cannot be accepted by the people,” the party said in a written statement.

The junta says public approval of the constitution will clear the way for multiparty elections in 2010.

If held, the polls would be the first since Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in the 1990 elections.

The junta ignored the result and instead has kept the Nobel peace prize winner under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.