_ by Thuria Tayza

15.05.2008

Burma’s ruling generals said on Saturday (10th May) there was “massive turnout” in their national referendum , and they announced on Thursday (15th May) that the pro-military constitution has won overwhelming support in the referendum.         

People of Burma suffering immeasurably under a brutal military regime have a clear and overwhelming desire to vote NO on the pro-military constitution in the May 2008 referendum. They would have done so if they got a chance. But the Generals did everything and anything and all the things they can, fair or unfair, to get a YES result _

1. The Way It Was Announced

   1. Since the beginning when they declared that they’d hold a referendum in May ‘08, they also declared that a new election under the new constitution will be held in 2010. It clearly shows that in their mind they are sure about the referendum result; determined to get their constitution approved by any means.
   2. The draft constitution was made available to wider general public only a month before referendum date, making it virtually impossible for ordinary people to grasp the essence of the draft constitution.
   3. The draft constitution copies were sold only in limited quantities in Rangoon and other major cities only, leaving out the bulk majority of voters in remote areas in the dark about what is really written in the draft constitution.
   4. The draft constitution was not made available to wider general public even about three months after the constitution drafting commission has finalized it. And during those about three months period, the generals inserted some new clauses into the already finalized constitution, without any consultation with any public body. And those illegitimately added clauses in effect give total immunity to the Generals. How convenient for them!
   5. Until a few days before the referendum, overwhelming majority of ordinary people have not yet seen the draft constitution.
   6. Although it was declared that the referendum is to be held in May, the exact date was not announced until less than one month before the date. The date was fixed only when the Generals felt sure that they have prepared all arrangements for vote rigging and intimidation to get a YES result.
   7. Actually the date was announced very shortly before the actual referendum with an aim to make it impossible for opposition party(s) to launch an effective “Vote NO” campaign.

2. Lack of Public Education on Constitution

   1. The government made very little or nil effort to explain the constitution to the ordinary people on the ground.
   2. The government made no public discussions or debates on the constitution.
   3. And political opposition is not allowed to hold any public discussions or debates on the constitution.
   4. Instead, the military government passed a law which gives a straight three years minimum jail sentence to any one who says anything against the referendum.

3. Flawed Referendum Law

   1. The authorities very widely interpret that vaguely worded referendum law and have already wrongfully accused and detained many political activists on false charges of attempting to disrupt the referendum.
   2. Although the referendum law only prohibits attempts to disrupt the referendum, authorities misuse that referendum law also to arrest activists who lawfully campaigned to persuade people to peacefully participate in the referendum and vote NO.
   3. For more information on the irregularities of the referendum Law, please read Referendum in Burma to be held on 10-5-08: Full of deceptions

4. Persecution on “Vote NO” Campaign

   1. Recently young people during the water festival were arrested because they wore ‘NO’ T-shirts.
   2. “NO” campaign posters anywhere are regularly pulled down by authorities, and in many case those who put up the posters are arrested.

5. Typing Errors and their Per-oral Correction

   1. The disparity between the prerequisites for ‘approving the constitution’ and that required for ‘its later modifications’ clearly shows the cheekiness of streetwise Burmese Generals. Section 441 of the draft constitution states that the constitution is to be approved in the first place by a simple majority in a referendum where 50% of eligible voters cast their votes. But, section 436(a) of the draft constitution states that later modifications of the constitution can be made only by 75% majority approval in parliament plus approval by ALL eligible voters in a public referendum!
   2. And then when the furore broke out about the absurdity of that section 436(a), the authorities claimed there was a typing error in the section 436(a). They said section 436(a) is actually supposed to say that half of ALL eligible voters need to approve future modifications of the constitution; the phrase ‘half of’ was dropped out from section 436(a) due to typing error, they claimed.
   3. The constitution is the most important document of the nation for all other countries around the world. But in Burma, as explained above, the constitution can have silly typing errors which are then corrected per oral by authorities.
   4. And, even with the informal per oral insertion of the phrase ‘half of’, section 436(a) still makes modification of the constitution far more difficult than approving it in the first place. Approving the constitution needs only a simple majority in the referendum with 50% voter turn out, effectively making it approvable by 25% (i.e., simple majority of 50%) of all eligible voters. But modification of the constitution needs 75% majority approval in the parliament plus approval by 50% of ALL eligible voters. It clearly shows the Generals’ intention to make their pro-military constitution quite easy to approve but very difficult to modify for future democratic reforms.

6. Lack of Transparency & Accountability

   1. With already so much international criticism on their pro-military constitution, the regime appears in no intention to make official English version of the constitution available until after the referendum. They can sense that releasing their constitution in the international language (English) will give its international critics a better chance to more thoroughly scrutinize their constitution exposing more and more of its absurdities, irrationalities and silly errors.
   2. Chief Justice U Aung Toe who was Chair of National Convention and Chair of constitution drafting commission is also the Chair of referendum commission, and he is very likely to become the Chair of election commission after the referendum. So it’s very much like, he is the player as well as the goal keeper and as well as the referee and as well as the linesman.
   3. International and United Nations referendum monitors and observers are also NOT allowed inside the country.
   4. Referendum Law says that first five voters at the polling station will be allowed to check if the ballot boxes are pre-filled or not, and last ten voters at the end of the day of referendum will be allowed to monitor the vote counting. But, reports coming out from virtually everywhere inside Burma say that those first five and last ten voters have already been selectively anointed by local authorities.
   5. Opposition Party(s) are not allowed to take part in local referendum commissions.
   6. Virtually all members of all local referendum commissions everywhere in Burma are members of pro-junta militant Kyant Phut organizations.

7. Intimidation by Pro-junta Militant Organizations

   1. Millions of people are forced into pro-junta militant Kyant Phut organizations, and Kyant Phut leaders have ordered their members to vote YES in the referendum.
   2. Members of such pro-junta organizations as Kyant Phut and Swan-arr-shin are encouraged by their leaders to cast multiple votes. They can cast as many number of votes as the number of such organizations they joined, and can also vote at Government Department Offices if they are civil servants.

8. Special Categories of Voters

   1. Arrangements have been made in the army to trace how individual soldiers and their families vote in the referendum, so that they won’t dare to vote NO. Orders have already been issued to collect votes (to collect under supervision of commanding officers) from soldiers and officers ahead of the actual referendum, on the excuse that the army needs to be on alert and on duty for security on the day of referendum.
   2. Civil servants are required to vote at the departmental offices under supervision of department heads.
   3. The regime have also ordered the government employees to sign a pledge that they would vote “Yes”.
   4. At the same time, civil servants are warned that they would face ‘the sack’ if they vote against the constitution in the referendum.
   5. Teachers, and students who are eligible to vote, are also required to vote at their schools and Universities under supervision.
   6. Doctors, nurses, lab technicians and even patients are required to vote at their respective hospitals under supervision of hospital authorities.
   7. Moreover, prison staffs and prisoners are also included in the list of a special category of voters_ along with soldiers, students, civil servants, doctors and nurses etc. _ who need to vote at specially specified places (usually at their work places) under supervision of their commanding officers.

9. Remote Areas

   1. In remote areas of difficult terrains, since April 15 local authorities have started collecting advanced votes from those who needed to travel to outside of their areas. Such people need to vote at the village council offices under supervision by authorities.

   2. Many in remote areas explained that it is not going to be secret voting and therefore people are scared to vote “No”.

10. Centrally Synchronised Vote Buying

    1. Top Generals have ordered regional and local military commanders and government ministers to make sure a YES result in the areas where they are responsible.
    2. So all  regional and local military commanders and government ministers these days are doing an intensive and non-stop effort to intimidate people to vote YES, or at least they are trying to buy YES votes.
    3. In many townships, local authorities threatened to cut resident’s electricity and water supply if they don’t get an 80% approval vote in the township.
    4. In addition to various forms of intimidation; 5000 kyats or a batik longyi or a bag of rice is now offered by some local authorities in exchange for a promise to vote YES in the referendum. In some other areas, sacks of rice and salt are sold at 50% discount to those who pledged to vote YES.
    5. Some provincial and state military commanders are promising the public to obtain mobile phones if they vote in favour of the drafted constitution.
    6. Authorities are also pressuring traders and businessmen to organize YES votes from their factory workers and shop assistants etc.

11. Cheatings

    1. In some areas, police summoned local people to attend public health meetings for prevention of infectious disease outbreaks, and then instead of giving public health lectures they preached how important it was to vote YES in the referendum.
    2. And some local authorities are systematically distributing fake ballots which have the slogan ‘voting “YES” to new democratic nation’ on one side, and have a personal data collection form on the back of the ballots. The back of the ballots have ‘Name: Address: polling station number and National Registration Card number.’ The fake ballots have the same colour and design as the real ones.
    3. Local authorities at Muse Township on the Sino-Burma border had held a mock polling session with the people, after which the mock result for support on the constitution was sent to the new capital Naypyidaw as the real result, according to Shan Herald Agency for News.
    4. In border areas, migrant workers and traders from neighbouring countries (especially those from Communist China, a long term supporter of Burmese military regime) are given temporary Burmese citizen cards so that they can vote (to vote YES) in the referendum.
    5. Many already deceased persons and non-existing persons have been found on the local electoral registers, whilst many a really living and really existing eligible voters cannot yet get themselves onto the electoral register.

12. Expatriate Voting Irregularities

    1. Although multi millions of legal and illegal migrants from Burma are living abroad, Burmese embassies around the world do not make any systematic effort to get them onto expatriate electoral registers.
    2. Instead, Burmese embassies around the world send out invitations for voting only to a selected few people whom they trust to vote YES.
    3. In addition to announcing the actual referendum date only less then one moth before it, Burmese embassies around the world collect the expatriate votes two weeks earlier than the announced date, so that exile politicians are left with very little chance to campaign among expatriates for a NO vote.
    4. Burmese embassies’ dishonest arrangement to disallow vast majority of expatriate “NO” voters in Singapore and Japan has led to chaos and serious discontent and dissent among  expatriates Burmese communities in those countries.
    5. In many Burmese embassies abroad, the embassy staff who supervised expatriate vote collections threatened expatriate voters that if they have any intention ever to go back to Burma safely, they must vote YES.
    6. As Burmese embassies abroad are required to provide a pre-fixed quota of expatriate YES votes, embassies which have not got the required number have to desperately blackmail, coerce and cajole Burmese expatriates under their sphere of influence, e.g. scholarship students on government grants etc. to come to the embassy and vote YES.
    7. The deadline date for expatriate votes is 27.04.08 in many countries, which has already passed now, with unbelievably huge number of multi millions of migrants from Burma around the world who haven’t yet got a chance to cast their votes.

13. Vote Counting

    1. At the end of the referendum, votes will be counted locally, but the results will not be announced locally. Instead, the local results will be send over to higher authorities up the chain of command, and eventually the results will be processed secretively by the central referendum commission in Naypyidaw (Burma’s reclusive administrative capital recently built for some bizarre reasons in a remote jungle-surrounded malaria-ridden area). There is no time frame for announcement of final referendum results. So, the central commission in Naypyidaw can take as long time as they need to process the results in any way they like.

14. Referendum Amidst Cyclone Disaster

    1. Lastly, but not least, a very powerful cyclone hit Rangoon, commercial capital and largest city in Burma, and the whole of southern Burma on 03.05.2008 just a week from the referendum, leaving these areas with no electricity, no phone and internet connection and virtually all major roads and railways submerged under water. With so much damage in so wide an area, there is very little chance that conditions will be restored back to normal within a week time.
    2. With the soaring cyclone death tolls beyond multiple tens of thousands, and under immense international pressure, Junta on Tuesday 06.05.2008 that voting on the military-backed constitution would be delayed until May 24 in most of the townships around Yangon and in seven of the Irrawaddy delta townships. But the rest of the country will go ahead with the referendum on the original date May 10.

15. Irregularities on the actual Day of the Referendum (May 10)

    1. Rigged Referendum in Rangon
    2. Rigged Referendum in Rakhine State
    3. Rigged Referendum in Mandalay
    4. Rigged Referendum in Shan State
    5. Rigged Referendum in Mon state
    6. Regime claims high turnout and big victory in Referendum aminst Disaster
    7. Rigged Referendum All Over The Country

16. For further information

    1. Burma’s National Referendum: A Total Deception
    2. The conduct and transparency of voting arrangements can be very important

Because of such massive irregularities, the result (a YES victory) declared by the military junta after the referendum happens to be just a subject of mammoth ridicule by the whole respectable decent international community (which usually does not include governments of Russia, Communist China, Sudan, Zimbabwe etc.).

As junta has declared an overwhelming victory, in a believe-it-or-not manner, no decent international leader will recognize the result of the referendum as a respectable credible result. Any “YES” vote obtained by threat, coercion, intimidation or bribery will be totally NULL & VOID in any International Court of Law; and the Peoples of Burma may challenge that vote and refuse to accept it.

Eventually, irregularities during the referendum will just pave the way for continued political deadlock in Burma.