Burmese ruling junta backed organizers on the constitutional referendum have urged the people in Northern Burma to go the polling stations to vote for democracy, local sources said.
 
U Nyo Win, member of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) backed by the junta and an organizer in-chief of Myitkyina Township areas, the capital of Kachin State made the pronouncement this week during his campaign on the referendum in Kachin dominated Tatkone quarter, the locals said.
 
"If you want democracy, go to the polling booths and cast your votes.  If you and I do not vote, democracy will move further and further away from us," he told over 150 local participants in Tatkone Quarter Administrative Hall on April 8, a local participant told KNG.
 
According to local participants U Nyo Win was also trying to mobilize people to support the new constitution in May. He also warned that if people do not support the referendum, democracy will be a distant dream.
 
U Nyo Win visited Sanpya block in the same quarter on April 10 and mobilised over 200 locals to vote for the approval of the country's new constitution drafted by the ruling junta, the locals said.
 
Tatkone residents said, they were forcibly summoned by the heads of blocks under the quarter administrative office (Ya-Ya-Ka).
 
The junta has offered the people in Laiza, in the controlled areas of Kachin ceasefire group, Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) that they will make temporary national registration documents by April 20, said a KIO immigration officer in Laiza.
 
At the moment in Myitkyina, village to township administrators are often called for meetings on the referendum by the junta's township administration (Ma-Ya-Ka) and the administrators are busy in terms of preparations, said local sources.
 
Burma's military regime has officially announced that the constitutional referendum will be held on May 10, 2008.