New Delhi (Mizzima) - Burma’s main opposition party – National League for Democracy (NLD) – on Tuesday met with organizing committee members from its various branches to discuss whether or not to contest the upcoming 2010 election.

Aung Shwe, chairman of the NLD, during his opening remarks urged fellow party members to discuss two crucial papers on the subject that the central executive committee had prepared and submitted in preparation for the meeting.

“We will decide our actions for the coming election based on the discussion of these two papers,” Aung Shwe told the meeting.

However, he said in order to be politically pragmatic, “We need to wait and see the political party registration law and electoral law to decide whether we could and should participate in the election under this constitution.”

The NLD earlier indicated it has not yet seriously approached the junta’s election, instead reiterating a call that the junta review the constitution, which was drafted and approved in a referendum in May 2008.

Aung Shwe in his speech also returned to the NLD’s call for the release of political prisoners, including party leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, and the commencing of a dialogue between military chief Senior General Than Shwe and Aung San Suu Kyi.

The meeting, attended by 156 organizing members from various states and divisions as well as members of parliament elected in the 1990 election, is the fourth such meeting convened by the NLD in the past twenty years.

The NLD, which won a landslide victory in Burma’s last election in 1990, has been crippled over the ensuing 20 years by the military government, with all branch offices across the country effectively closed.

The Shwegondine head office in Rangoon is the only functioning NLD office, though the junta keeps strict surveillance over the grounds – recording all events as well as taking note of guests to the office.