On April 5, 2008 at 11 a.m. Namkham Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) secretary U Myo Thu ordered the headmen to inform villagers who are over 18 years to collect ID cards. He promised that if they supported the draft constitution the local authorities would issue the ID cards for them without delay and free of charge.
"No one gets the ID cards for free from the local authorities, every one has to pay at least Kyat 3,000 ($2.4). But, in the past, if people went to renew their ID cards they had to pay Kyat 30,000 ($24) and had to wait for a long time to get the ID cards," said the local source.
"The Burmese military is just luring the people to support the draft constitution at the referendum in May by issuing temporary cards to the people such as green and light red cards and by making promises," said the source.
Four village tracts from north of Muse, Namkhum, Wiangmai, Nampam and Toengkam were forced to prepare Namkun school as a polling station. One polling booth will accommodate 1,000 voters.
The Namkhun School will have 10 polling booths. The booths are made of bamboo and covered with papers and there are three feet wide compartments enclosed on three sides. One side is covered with a plain cloth as an entrance, the source said.
Every five villages have to collect Kyat 30,000 ($24) for the cloth, bamboos, papers and the place to build the polling booths. The total cost is about Kyat 150,000 ($120).
"The ballot boxes have not arrived yet. The draft constitutional booklets are being distributed to the public over the last two or three days," added the source.
