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YANGON, MYANMAR - MYANMAR'S military rulers said on Wednesday they would imprison anyone caught giving public speeches or distributing leaflets about a constitutional referendum set for May.
The junta announced earlier this month that it would hold the referendum in May to set the stage for democratic elections in 2010, a process that critics say will only entrench military rule.
A new law enacted to oversee the balloting allows for up to three years in prison for 'attempts to destroy the referendum by giving a speech in public and leafleting,' the official Mirror newspaper said.
'Whoever breaks these restrictions or attempts to break them, whether found breaking them or helping to break them, can be sentenced to not more than three years' imprisonment or a 100,000 kyat (S$119) fine,' it said.
Tampering with the ballot box and ballot papers was also declared a crime.
Myanmar announced late Tuesday that it had enacted the law and set up a 45-member commission to organise the referendum.
The law said the date for the referendum would be announced at least 21 days before the balloting.
The number of eligible voters in the country would be determined one week before the vote, it added.
Anyone over 18 is eligible to vote, except for Buddhist monks and other clergy.
The law said ballots would be counted in the presence of 10 voters as witnesses, but did not say how many polling stations would be set up.
The new commission overseeing the referendum will be headed by Supreme Court chief justice Aung Toe, who also led up the panel tasked with writing the final version of the proposed constitution.
That panel wrapped up its work one week ago, but the document still has not been released.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win told a regional gathering in Singapore last week that the constitution would ban detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running because she had been married to a foreigner, late British academic Michael Aris. -- AFP
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