Wa playing ball with referendum exercise

In Panghsang, the Wa capital, the polling station will be set up at the town’s main Buddhist temple.
 
Wa authorities together with their ally in the south, National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS), after a month long stand off, had finally allowed junta registration officials to register and issue temporary white cards to the populace under their sway. He did not elaborate as to why Panghsang had changed its mind.
 
In addition, Wa authorities have also allowed junta officials to hold mock polling sessions with local populace. “We are not telling them whether to support or oppose the draft,” he said. “It is entirely their choice.”
 
A Burma watcher in Thailand remarked that Chinese authorities who are backing Nay Pyi Taw’s 7-step roadmap must be behind Panghsang’s switch from resistance to accommodation. Earlier, it had been unyieldingly against the referendum process for two main reasons:

• The white card does not signify that the holder is a citizen of Burma
• Mongpawk and Mongphen, long under Wa control, are not included in the Wa Self-Administered Division (SAD) but in the Burma Army-controlled Mongyang township, Kengtung district. The Wa instead are to get Markmang aka Metman township under Burma Army rule since 1980.

In the meanwhile, the NDAA-ESS, better known as the Mongla group by its administrative capital, appears to be holding out alone.
 
It had, like Panghsang, finally permitted junta registration teams to issue temporary cards for its people, but all the cards have been kept in its custody since the issuance. “We were also requested to set up a polling station in Mongla,” said one of its officials. “But we told them our people will have to travel from afar to cast their votes and we don’t have enough funds to pay for their expenses.”
 
The NDAA-ESS, like the Wa, has been harboring the same grievances. The difference is that, in the Mongla case, the bone of contention is Saleu, a town occupied by it since the days under the communist rule, which Burma’s military rulers have also designated as a constituent part of Mongyang township.
 
The nationwide referendum is to be held 10 May, 14 days away. The draft charter, drawn by the military-appointed commission, is being claimed by Nay Pyi Taw as the gateway to democracy. The opposition, on the other hand, says by adopting it the country’s universally despised de facto government will become a de jure government.

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