His party, however, is split over whether to boycott the election. Some members say participating would mean losing a moral claim to the party’s landslide victory in the 1990 general election, which the junta ignored. Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent much of the period since then under house arrest and was sentenced to a new term of 18 months in August, has not made her views on the issue public.

Still, the Constitution offers some protections. In August, the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental organization based in Brussels that seeks to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts, issued a report recommending that opposition groups take part in the election. It said that although the new Constitution “entrenches military power,” the changes at least established “shared political spaces  the legislatures and perhaps the cabinet  where cooperation could be fostered.”

And internationally, some policies toward Myanmar, formerly Burma, are shifting.

Last week, the Obama administration announced that it would engage the junta directly, while keeping sanctions in place. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for the unconditional release of political prisoners, including Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, and “credible, democratic reform.”

Mr. Win Tin said, “If the direct engagement of the U.S. will result in the release of all political prisoners and in a revision of the 2008 Constitution, then dialogue could begin between us and the junta, and we would consider running in the election.”

Mr. Win Tin  warm, razor-sharp and clearly determined  said the reason the junta released him, shortly before his prison sentence was completed, might have been to split the party. He admitted that “we are having some arguments about whether we are going to participate in the elections or not,” but insisted that there was “no conflict within the party now.”