Yangon (AsiaNews) – As the military continues to get the poor and the illiterate to vote in favour of the constitution by using threats and tricks, in the cities the ruling junta is pressuring voters to cast a favourable ballot if they want to get their papers. Sources in fact have told AsiaNews that in government offices officials are telling those who want to renew their driver’s licence or register a new car that they must vote Yes in advance polls if they want their papers.
Elsewhere in Yangon and Mandalay residents are complaining that the military regime is pulling tricks out of its hat that verge on the ridiculous.
Government officials are actually telling people that they must take part in referendum trial runs so that they can be shown how to vote by placing an X on the ‘Yes’ box; however, once this is done the supposedly fake ballots are taken and participants are told that they don’t have to go to vote on 10 May, the day when Myanmar’s generals expect their new constitution to be approved, which many human rights activists and the country’s pro-democracy opposition see as a simple tool to legitimise the status quo.
“We are awed and scared of how the junta is determined to force upon us this constitution that no one wants, not even public servants or soldiers,” said the sources that remained anonymous for their own security.
Meanwhile US President George W. Bush announced new sanctions against companies controlled by the Myanmar government which are major sources of funds for the military regime.
Targets of the United States are “companies, in industries such as gems and timber, [that] exploit the labour of the downtrodden Burmese people, but enrich only the generals,” Bush said.