Burma's election commission has summoned major political partiesto discuss postponing a historic general election due to the worst flooding to hit the country in decades.
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) is expected to do well in the poll, which has been billed as the country's first free and fair election in 25 years.
Postponing next month's election, a milestone in the country's transition from military dictatorship to democracy, would likely be a blow to President Thein Sein's legacy after he invited hundreds of international observers to witness the voting.
It could also raise questions over the readiness of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which includes many members of Burma's former junta, to accept the results of the poll.
The election commission invited 10 parties to the capital, Naypyitaw, and asked them whether they wanted to postpone the election because of the floods.
The NLD opposed the move, while the USDP was in favour of a postponement, the three people said. There was an exchange of views but no voting on the matter, the two politicians present at the meeting said.
"We invited political parties to get their opinions. The main reasons are the current natural disasters and unstable situation in the country," Zeyar Maung, an official at the Union Election Commission headquarters, said.
"It is still undecided yet whether to postpone the election."
Win Htein, a senior NLD official who attended the meeting, said the floods, which have devastated parts of western Burma, particularly its impoverished Chin State, were not a good enough reason to postpone the landmark vote.
"This is a false excuse, the disasters in Chin and flooding are quite negotiable," said Win Htein.
More than 100 people have been killed and over one million "critically affected" by the flooding in recent months, according to the government and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
It is the worst natural disaster in Burma since Cyclone Nargis killed nearly 140,000 people in May 2008.
"The postponement of the elections in Myanmar (Burma), even on reasonable grounds and by a short time, would seriously shake confidence in the willingness of the incumbent elite to further the political transition," said Romain Caillaud, senior director, global risk and investigations practice at FTI Consulting in Singapore.
Tensions have been running high ahead of the poll, largely stoked by the Ma Ba Tha, an organisation led by the hardline nationalist monks that has sharply criticised the NLD.
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