"The township chairman of Maungdaw was made the president of the election commission and the township secretary has become the secretary of the election commission in the township," the anonymous source said.
According to the election rules for the referendum, the village chairmen automatically become president of the respective village election commissions, and the village administrative clerks become the secretaries of the commissions. The members of the village council will also become members of the village election commissions.
During the formation of the election commission in Maungdaw, the authorities distributed a guide for the referendum to those who attended.
"There are 27 pages in the guide and it mentions many things related to the referendum. It was published for election commissioners as a guide on how to hold the referendum in May," the official said.
The guide says during the referendum ballot boxes are to be placed in polling booths and voters must cast one ballot in the box whether they vote 'yes' or 'no' on the draft constitution.
The Burmese military authorities are now forming township election commissions in all townships in Arakan State but have not yet announced a specific date for the polls, even though the referendum is set to be held in May.
Moreover, the military regime has not yet disclosed the content of the draft constitution to the people, despite being expected to vote on it in nearly one month's time.
"People have not decided whether they will cast votes in the referendum or not, because the draft constitution has not been studied by the people. The question remains as to how people can cast votes on the draft constitution unless they know its content," the official said.
People in Arakan State are in a dilemma over the referendum, and are asking questions about how they will cast votes in the polls if they do not know what is in the draft constitution that has been drawn up by the military government.
