U.S. calls Myanmar election laws "a mockery"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New laws enacted by Myanmar's military government make a mockery of democracy and ensure that elections due later this year will be a farce, the United States said on Wednesday.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the election measures, which set strict limits on political participation, undercut U.S. efforts to improve ties with the country formerly known as Burma.

"Given the tenor of the election laws that they've put forward, there's no hope that this election will be credible," Crowley told a news briefing.

"This is a step in the wrong direction," Crowley said, adding that the set of laws published this week "makes a mockery of the democratic process."

A spokesman for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also expressed concern over the new laws.

"The indications available so far suggest that they do not measure up to our expectations of what is needed for an inclusive political process," spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.

The measures are being released in advance of Myanmar's first elections in 20 years. No date has yet been set for polls already regarded with deep skepticism by many political observers.

Crowley said the United States would continue to seek dialogue with Myanmar, which remains under economic sanctions first imposed in 1988 after the military junta cracked down on student-led protests.

But he conceded that overtures made last year by President Barack Obama to encourage democratic reforms had so far failed to achieve progress.

"Our engagement with Burma will have to continue so we can make clear that the results thus far are not what we expected and they're going to have to do better," Crowley said.

Under the new laws, Myanmar's military government is requiring several parties including the National League for Democracy (NLD), the opposition group headed by detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to re-register with officials within 60 days or face closure.

Parties that register will be required to exclude members serving prison terms. This would include Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention and is now serving 18 months in house detention for breaching security laws.

Many other senior NLD members are among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to rights activists, and the party has not said whether it intends to participate in the elections.

(Reporting by Andrew Quinn; additional reporting by Lou Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler)