Yangon – Myanmar’s prime minister has urged people to vote for “good, smart, patriotic people” in the general election on November 7, media reports said Monday.

Thein Sein also warned voters in the military-run country to “prevent any destructive acts so the election will meet with success,” the government’s New Light of Myanmar reported.

The prime minister was speaking at the opening Sunday of a 32-kilometre rail link between Pyay and Paukkhaug in central Myanmar.

A general election is planned for November 7 to select an upper, lower and regional houses of parliament. It would be the first polls the junta-ruled country has held in 20 years.

The pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party was expected to field the greatest number of candidates in the polls, which few observers expected to bring genuine democracy in the country.

A clause in the new constitution allows the military control over any future elected government by making the upper house of the National Parliament a partially junta-appointed body with veto power over legislation.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The last election in 1990 was won by the National League for Democracy Party, led by pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. The victorious party was blocked from assuming power.