The Burmese ethnic ceasefire group the New Mon State Party (NMSP) will not recognize the government's constitutional referendum which was neither free nor fair, said the NMSP a day after the junta held the referendum.
The government will approve the constitution for sure. If they had not been certain of getting supporting votes they would not have announced holding of elections in 2010, said Nai Ong Mange a spokesperson of NMSP.
"The referendum was held without the presence of international and local monitoring. The commission is not the representative of the people and we will not trust the result of the referendum," he said.
"I supported the constitution because I was afraid of being arrested," said Mi Khin, a house wife from Mudon Township .
"I voted against the constitution and I believe a majority of people have voted 'No'. But who knows what result the government will announce," said an 81 year old man.
Before and during the referendum, the government launched a one sided propaganda appealing to people to support the constitution by broadcasting propaganda songs on TV and radio, placing newspaper advertisements and put up signboards on the high way, said Nai Ong Mange. The government also had propaganda songs sung and distributed pamphlets at the polling stations, he said.
On the other hand, the regime banned people from criticising the constitution from drafting the constitution stage until the holding of the referendum, said Nai Ong Mange.
"We have received information from Mon state that local commission members forced people in many different ways to support the constitution while they collected votes before the referendum day," he said.
The commission members in some parts of Ye township and Mudon township Mon state frightened villagers that they will be put in prison and be fined if they go against the constitution, he said.
The government had made arrangements to get supporting votes over the half way mark. They just held the referendum for showing the world community," said a taxi driver U Htawy.
"Even if the constitution is approved and the government holds elections in 2010, we are not interested in getting involved in the election," Nai Ong Mange concluded.
