With less than three weeks to go until Burmese get a chance to vote on a constitution drawn up by the country’s military rulers, a new poll conducted by Irrawaddy correspondents in Rangoon shows that residents of Burma’s largest city are less than enthusiastic about their first chance to cast a ballot in nearly two decades.
Sixty-seven, or 44.7 percent, of the 150 Rangoon residents who responded to the survey said that they had not yet decided how they would vote, or were uninterested in the referendum.
The number who said they would vote against the constitution, meanwhile, was 62, or 41.4 percent, while fewer than seven percent of those polled said they would vote in favor of the constitution.
Slightly more than seven percent declined to respond to the question: “Will you vote “yes” or “no” in the upcoming referendum on the draft constitution?”
The poll was directed at a wide cross-section of Burmese society, including laborers, street vendors, students, professionals, civil servants, members of the armed forces and retirees. None of the interviewees were politicians or activists.
Nearly half of those polled—70 out of 150—were described as working class, of whom 41, or 58.5 percent, said they were undecided or not interested in voting.
This group also had the largest number of “yes” votes, with nearly 13 percent saying they would support the draft constitution. Almost 29 percent said they would vote against it.
The only other “yes” vote came from an elderly respondent. Around three-quarters of interviewees aged over 65 said they did not intend to vote in the referendum, while 25 percent said they would vote “no.”
More than two-thirds of educated professionals said they would vote against the constitution, while the remaining third was undecided. Ten out of 10 students who were interviewed said they would reject the junta’s charter.
Journalists were similarly unanimous in their rejection of the constitution, with all 10 respondents saying they would vote “no.”
“I will vote ‘no’ because the constitution was not written by representatives of the entire nation, including leaders of the national races and members of parliament elected in the 1990 election,” said one Rangoon-based editor.
Two civil servants and nine members of the armed forces who were interviewed by The Irrawaddy would not say how they intended to vote. One of the civil servants, a health ministry official, said that the government had ordered all public employees to cast a “yes” vote, adding that senior officials had also been instructed to read the constitution, copies of which have been distributed to government ministry offices since March.
Military personnel from Light Infantry Battalion 106 and Infantry Battalion 16 said that their commanders had ordered them to vote “yes.” Most of the rank-and-file soldiers said that they didn’t understand the text of the constitution.
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