Myanmar's national convention to lay down basic detailed principles for drawing up a new state constitution concluded on Tuesday its session which started on Dec. 5 last year to adjourn again up to the end of this year, according to official sources.

The convention will be temporarily adjourned to the end of this year when the farmers complete their harvest because the National Convention Convening Commission (NCCC) has to arrange and implement the remaining on-going tasks, First Secretary of the State Peace and Development Council Lieutenant-General Thein Sein said in his closing speech of the session, the sources said.

The current session of the convention, which resumed on last Dec. 5 at the Nyaunghnapin Camp, about 40 kilometers north of Yangon, laid down basic detailed principles concerning the powers and functions of the president, executive powers and judicial powers of the union government and region or state government, self-administered zones and self-administered divisions.

Since the national convention first started in 1993, it has adopted 104 basic principles for drafting the state constitution and detailed ones for such chapters as "The State", "Structure of State", "Head of state", "Designation of Self-Administered Divisions or Zones", "Formation of Legislature", "Formation of Executive", "Formation of Judiciary" and "Sharing of legislative power".

Attending the convention were over 1,000 invited delegates from eight categories of delegate groups mainly including political parties, representatives-elect (in the 1990 general election), state service personnel (including armymen) and invited individuals (including turned-in former anti-government ethnic armed groups).

The holding of the national convention is designated as the first step of the government's seven-point political roadmap to democracy announced in August 2003, followed by undergoing a national referendum on draft of the constitution, holding a general election to produce parliament representatives and forming a new democratic government.

Source: Xinhua