By Zhang Yunfei, Xinhua,
Yangon : Local people in a remote suburban township of Hlegu in Myanmar’s Yangon division were successively coming to polling booths in the township to cast votes on a draft constitution put forward in a nationwide referendum that kicked off early Saturday morning.
The nationwide referendum on the draft constitution was taking place as scheduled with people across the country going to poll to cast votes on the charter except areas including the biggest city of Yangon still declared as cyclone-hit regions.
Hlegu, 48 kilometers north of Yangon city, stood one of the five remote suburban townships in Yangon division along with 19 townships in southwestern Ayeyawaddy division where polling was held as in the whole country as these areas have been dropped out of the list of being cyclone-hit regions for being claimed to have basically returned to normalcy after disaster.
Before the time stroke 6:00 a.m. (local time) in the morning just after dawn, polling station working staff under the local Commission for Holding Nationwide Referendum had taken up positions at their respective polling booths in the township, awaiting for local voters to come for ballot casting.
Chairman of the Hlegu township commission for holding referendum U Phone Myat Thu, at a polling booth set up inside a school compound, told Xinhua that there are 119 polling booths in the township with 137,729 eligible voters.
Local township people with many farmers were mostly seen arriving on foot at the booths, while some by bicycles and some by small pick-up trucks in groups.
Some of them checked the voting rolls put up on a big board to confirm their names enlisted for preparing entry into the polling booths.
An elder voter of the township said after he came out of the booth that he supports the new constitution because Myanmar should have a constitution to run the country.
However, a polling booth officer clarified that one may also freely vote “Yes” or “No” to the draft constitution out of his own volition.
Another middle-aged woman resident, who stepped out of a room set up for secret casting of votes at another polling booth, also told Xinhua that “It needs a constitution rather than without a constitution”.
A man in his 40s, who just came back from abroad, also told Xinhua excitedly that he looks forward to seeing a similar development in his country that he saw abroad, implying that he wants to see a modern, developed and peaceful Myanmar emerging in his eyes.
As 40 townships in Yangon division out of 45 and 7 townships out of 26 in the southwestern Ayeyawaddy division are still under cyclone-hit regions status, ballot, vote casting in these areas is postponed to a fortnight later on May 24.
There remains only five remote townships in the Yangon division– Htantabin, Hlegu, Hmawby, Taikkyi and Cocokyun, and 19 townships in the Ayeyawaddy division where polling is taking place as in the whole country.
According to official estimation, there is a total population of 57 million in the whole of Myanmar. with up-to-age population or eligible voters standing at 27 million.
Of the country’s 57 million population, Yangon represents about7 million, while Ayeyawaddy about 6 million.
The polling booths are set to close in late afternoon at 4 p.m.(0930 GMT) after which ballot counting will be done.
According to the draft constitution, the constitution draft can be ratified with the majority votes-in-favor out of the votes cast by over 50 percent of eligible voters.
The 194-page 15-chapter 2008 Republic of Union of Myanmar Constitution was drafted by a 54-member State Constitution Drafting Commission in accordance with the detailed basic principles laid down by the National Convention.
The referendum on the new constitution draft constitutes part of the military government’s seven-step roadmap announced in 2003.The next step is to hold a multi-party democracy general election in 2010 to produce parliament representatives to hand over power to a democratically elected civil government.