Nationwide signature campaign for constitution change ends
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NLD now in final stage of counting names
The National League for Democracy (NLD) is in the final stage of counting signatures backing the amendment of the constitution, as its 54-day campaign drew to an end on Saturday.
According to NLD executive member Tun Tun Hein, the signature tallying will take place at NLD headquarters in Yangon. Signatures from all parts of the country will be transported to the headquarters.
“The tallying should be completed on July 26. Then, the result would be released to the public,” Tun Tun Hein said. He noted that the NLC central executive committee would consider what to do next with the results.
In June, the party announced that it had collected more than 3 million signatures.
NLD chairman Aung San Suu Kyi earlier said it would be submitted to parliament, to show policy-makers how desperate the public want to amend the junta-imposed 2008 Constitution.
“Regarding the constitutional amendment, the compliance of the people’s will should decide the trustworthiness of Parliament,” said Suu Kyi.
The signature campaign kicked off on May 27 and ran until July 19 to seek public support to amend Section 436, which presently guarantees military power in blocking any charter amendment.
The charter change is seen as a means to deepen democracy, to improve ethnic equality and to introduce the federal union system.
The NLD and the public are also seeking to amend a clause that bars Suu Kyi – with a foreign husband and children of other nationality – from contesting the presidential race next year.
The campaign, supported by the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, drew support from leading and high-profile figures like artists, poets and the disabled.
“We can see some political forces collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment,” President Thein Sein had noted in a previous statement. “We are keeping a close watch on efforts on necessary amendments to meet democratic values.”
Ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party executive member Thura Aung Ko said in a warning on May 28 that the country might plunge into crisis if the government ignored the demand for charter change. He also said the peace deal with ethnic groups might collapse.
Throughout the campaign period, Suu Kyi travelled the country drawing crowds of thousands with speeches urging the military to accept a reduced political role, as her party of democracy veterans touts its moral authority in the former army-run nation.
Under Section 436, to alter the constitution there needs to be support from a majority of more than 75 per cent of Parliament.
A member of the constitution amendment committee, which like Parliament is dominated by the military and ruling army-backed party, told Agence France-Presse the petition would make no difference to its deliberations.
He said the 31-member group will release its first recommendations in the coming days, but that these are only based on suggestions received before a December deadline.
“They should have done this earlier,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity because members have been directed not to reveal their deliberations.
AFP quoted independent Myanmar expert Renaud Egreteau as saying that the military, while not wanting to return to direct rule, views its legislative influence as part of its “guardian” role so “wants no big change in anything”.
“It seems that everybody has in mind that after 2015 many things will be different. But nobody knows how,” he said.
