Shan party dismisses “rigged” referendum

“As a party and as citizens of the Union, we can never accept or acknowledge any official result that says the charter has been approved by the people,” said Sai Lake, the SNLD spokesperson, “because it (the referendum) wasn’t won fair-and-square.”
 
In Kengtung, he maintained, only two ballots papers were given to each household, regardless of the number of its members, to either tick (in support of the draft) or cross (in opposition to the draft), as one wished. The remaining ballot papers were then ticked off by the referendum commissioners and cast in the ballot box by themselves.
 
In Lashio, northern Shan State, voters were handed out ballot papers already ticked off by the authorities for them (the voters) to cast in the ballot box. In some cases, authorities told voters they could go home as their ballot papers had already been cast.
 
In Rubyland Mogok, there were allegedly some 900 No votes against 700 Yes votes, but the authorities settled the problem by ticking Yes for voters who failed to appear. “They even counted ballot papers marked with symbols other then ticks or crosses as Yes voters,” he claimed.
 
The SNLD participated in the junta-organized National Convention held “to lay down constitutional principles” from 1993-1996. It together with the NLD and 9 party United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) refused to attend the reconvened National Convention in 2004, saying their call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi was rejected and the authorities failed to clarify how the discussions on the junta-proposed 6 Objectives and 104 Constitutional Principles would be handled. Its leaders Khun Tun Oo, Sai Nyunt Lwin and 7 others were detained and sentenced to 75-106 years in prison in 2005. One of them “Math” Myint Than died in May 2006 while serving a 79-year sentence at Sandoway.