A date has now been set for an election that will mark a defin-ing moment in Myanmar's slow march away from military dictatorship and towards democracy. On November 8th voters will go to the polls for the first free national ballot since 1990. Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's most popular politician and leader of the main opposition, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has confirmed that her party will compete. In 2010 it boycotted the previous election, a tawdry, rigged affair that produced a parliament dominated by soldiers who had swapped their uniforms for longyis (Burmese sarongs) and stood for the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The shift in power that has been promised since 2011, when President Thein Sein, a former general with a winning manner, took office, seems at last to be at hand. Understandably, many potential foreign investors are biding their time, waiting to see what kind of political order emerges. Yet among many Burmese politicians and analysts, the mood is far from euphoric. The fear is that the election will not be the happy culmination of democratic reforms. Rather, it will usher in a period of acute uncertainty and unpredictable political horse-trading. It will also disappoint almost everyone.
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机译：现在已经确定了选举的日期，这将标志着缅甸从军事独裁走向民主的缓慢步伐中的决定性时刻。 11月8日，选民将参加自1990年以来的第一次免费全国性投票。昂山素季（Aung San Suu Kyi）是该国最受欢迎的政治家和主要反对派民族民主联盟（NLD）的领导人，已经证实她的政党将竞争。在2010年，它抵制了前次选举，这是一场残酷的操纵事件，产生了一个由士兵统治的议会，这些士兵将其制服换成longyi（缅甸纱笼），并代表联盟团结与发展党（USDP）。自2011年总统登城（Thein Sein）赢得胜利以来的前任总统就职以来，权力的转变似乎终于来临。可以理解的是，许多潜在的外国投资者正在等待时间，以等待出现什么样的政治秩序。然而，在许多缅甸政客和分析师中，这种情绪远非欣喜若狂。担心选举不会成为民主改革的圆满结果。相反，它将迎来一个充满不确定性和不可预测的政治交易时期。几乎所有人都会失望。
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