Burma: Junta to issue temporary certificates to youth so they can vote

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The Burmese immigration authorities will issue temporary certificates to all Rohingya youths who have attained the age of 18 before May 2008 to enable them to vote in the forthcoming nationwide constitutional referendum scheduled for the month.

Since the beginning of March, the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) members in Maungdaw Township have been collecting the list of youths and will send it to the immigration office. They are also taking photographs for which the villagers have to pay kyat 2,000 per head, said a trader of Phur Wut Chaungon village in Maungdaw Township on condition of anonymity.

The provisional measure is taken under a 12-chapter 2008 Republic of Union of Burma Referendum Law enacted by the government on February 26 following the completion of the constitution draft by the government-formed State Constitution Drafting Commission, or SCDC on February19 to seek public approval through the referendum.

The referendum law grants every citizen, associate citizen, naturalized citizen and temporary certificate holder, who has attained 18 years of age on the day of referendum, to vote but bans voting by members of religious orders and persons serving prison terms.

It allows free casting of votes on the constitution draft and open counting of the votes to ensure the referendum be free and fair, the law says, adding that it allows secret casting of votes into the ballot box that is publicly visible and ballots be counted in the presence of not less than 10 eligible voters as soon as the polling booth closes.

The law warns against acts aimed at undermining the referendum, banning public speeches and distributing leaflets and posters in an attempt to disturb the running of the referendum.

Law-breakers will be imprisoned with a term of up to three years or a fine in cash up to kyat 100,000 or both, the law states.

According to the SPDC, the referendum is to pave a way for general elections scheduled for 2010 under the government's seven-step road map to transform the military administration into a civil one.

The new constitution had been drafted by the SCDC since December 3 last year, laid down in the decade-long national convention which started in 1993 and ended in September 2007.

That national convention was attended in by over 1,000 delegates coming from eight categories of delegate groups including national races and turned-in former anti-government ethnic armed groups, according to the local weekly Voice in March.