Chiang Mai – The national constitutional referendum convening commission will soon publish copies of Burma's 2008 draft constitution, according to a government official.

"Our latest release is the Detailed Basic Principles book. The convening commission will soon publish draft copies of the constitution itself," the official said.

Residents of Rangoon said that secret copies of the draft constitution, which the government says has been finished since January, have been seen in recent days. The draft will be subjected to a referendum this May.

"Copies have been distributed since Friday, one for department heads and another for other staff to study," remarked a person who saw a copy of the final draft version.

"The size of the book is the same as the previous 'Basic Principles' book, there's no illustration on the green cover, only the words 'Union of Myanmar Constitution 2008'. It has 15 chapters and 194 pages," a Rangoon resident said.

He presumed that a copy of the constitution book spreading over the Internet may be a reproduction of the 'Basic Principles' book which was distributed by government periodical and book shops as well as the Sarpaybeikman publishing house.

"I think they posted the 'Basic Principles' book on the Internet. Government bookshops under the Press and Periodicals Corporation and Sarpaybeikman publishing house sold the 'Basic Principles' book at the rate of 250-300 kyat per copy [1 dollar = 1,100 kyat]. The final constitution copy has been published only recently, and has not yet reached the general audience. Even photocopies of these books are only recently available," he added.

"In the 'Basic Principles', there are many paragraphs in the 'Armed Forces' chapter. They reduced the number of paragraphs in this chapter. I cannot comment in detail as I have just gone through the book, but four paragraphs were deleted from the 'Armed Forces' chapter," he further commented.

A Rangoon-based embassy staff member who has also read the constitution book said, "There are some discrepancies in the final draft copy from the 'Basic Principles' book previously published."

The government is to announce May's polling date at least 21 days beforehand and copies of the draft constitution are to be published prior to the referendum.