Nasdaq
YANGON (AFP)--Myanmar's military authorities began Friday to pin up voters' lists for the referendum on their proposed constitution, and confirmed that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be allowed to vote.
But an official said they would not release the full list as a single document or the total number of eligible voters until after the May 10 poll.
"We will announce the list of all eligible voters after the referendum," said an information official who did not want to be named.
State media did not mention that any lists were going up on Friday, and only some local administrative offices were displaying the voters' roll.
People on the streets of the economic hub Yangon said they heard through word of mouth that some townships were displaying the lists, which were compiled after the authorities carried out house-to-house voter registration.
"I will go to check as I heard the voters' lists were released at the ward office," said one female resident.
Anyone not on the list has only one week to appeal to local authorities.
A government official who did not want to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media confirmed that detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo -- who is also under house arrest -- would be able to vote.
"Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo are on the voters' list. It is not clear if she will go to the polling booth or if the authorities will go to her house to get her vote," the official said.
Another official at a Yangon township confirmed that some local authorities had put up the lists, and told AFP that advance voting for people who will be away on May 10 had also begun.
"People can vote since yesterday (Thursday)," he said.
The referendum next Saturday will be the first balloting in Myanmar since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi led her party to a landslide victory.
The junta never recognized the result, and instead put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and launched its much-derided "roadmap to democracy", which they insist is needed for a smooth transition to civilian rule.
If the constitution is passed, the generals have promised multi-party elections in 2010, but democracy activists say the charter simply entrenches military rule in a country it has ruled since 1962.
Aung San Suu Kyi would be barred from running for office under the new charter because she was married to a foreigner, late British Tibetan scholar Michael Aris.
Pro-democracy and human rights activists have also warned that the polls would probably not be free and fair, as no outside observers have been allowed to watch the process and no one was allowed to campaign against the charter.
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment